The Path of the Aura II: Brothers in Arms
by GameManiac
Summary: Direct sequel to "The Path of the Aura: Intertwining Crossroads". With the Void of the Dark One now recognized as a looming threat, two groups in two different worlds must do their part in preventing this great evil from coming to light. "Chapter XXIII (23)" uploaded. A David and Goliath meeting between a gentle Aggron and a timid Snivy. Rated T for blood, language, and violence.
1. Recap Prologue

Total Hit Count: 5,318

Disclaimer

The following is a non-profit, dedicated work of FanFiction. The original characters, ideas, and storyline are owned by me.

Any and every song listed, licensed characters portrayed, or other miscellaneous concept referenced all belong to their respective properties.

Please do your part in offering them your support, and continue doing so if you already are.

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"This chapter is historically incorrect, When crucified victims would often be tied with ropes not nailed in. Jesus was an exception because the people (at the time) hated him so much" -Cyndaquil123

"This is an absolutely amazingly epic story I am glad to have come across." -DemoncatShade

"You clearly put your heart and soul into this story and I appreciate that." -Flameboo

"But in all honesty you are a horrible person, I found this new chapter at 3 in the morning, I wanted to sleep. But unfortunately this chapter kept me up longer that I wanted to be up. You should feel really proud of yourself. ;)" -Kalakar

"Very good fic sir, original and enjoyable. I like where it seems this is going. One piece of feedback I could give is that you seem to use complex words to describe actions and situations a little to liberally. hope you keep writing this to completion." -Lothario the Lucario

"Truthfully the first time I attempted to read your story I got threw chapter 1 and lost interest. Out of the lack of any other long stories with Lucario in it I decided to give this another shot. And I can say I am glad I did. My one and only major complaint about this story is that for most of it I felt as if I was reading two independent stories. There are a few other nitpicky complaints that I won't bother with though." -OseanSoldier

"This story just keeps getting better! Great job man!" -TaXMaNFoReVeR

"This is quite frankly one of the best stories to have a Lucario fight. I love this battle and have yet to find one better." -ZealousZoroark

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Over the course of writing my very first FanFic, "_The Path of the Aura: Intertwining Crossroads_" I feel as though these were some of the strongest reviews given to me and towards my story, one per individual. And by strongest, I don't mean by their magnitude of loving praise or nitpicky spite, but by their importance to me, the generosity of each individual in reflecting my potential as a FanFic author, where I can evolve from there, and what helps motivate me in continuing to write.

And as I've stated before in the "Afterword" chapter of my first FanFic, I plan on continuing to write, for as long as I'm able to, and with the ideas that I have piling up within my mind, towards my growing audience.

After all, I stated before that I planned on making a quartet through my ideas. However, as time goes on, that original future sight of my progress might change. It won't chance for the worst, mind you, but for the better. That much I can promise my fellow readers, even though I won't say anything more on the matter out of the fact that you (hopefully) already know of my first _completed_ FanFic, as well as this budding sequel that I've already put in 100,000 words into, if you've been following the growing info that I've put on my profile page.

But for those that don't know of "_The Path of the Aura: Intertwining Crossroads_", this chapter properly summarizes the _entirety_ of my first FanFic, all 353,009 words of it. As for those that _do_ know of my first FanFic, and have already read through it, this chapter does a proper job in refreshing your memory of it, as well as organizing it down into three main segments: Eduardo's side of the story, Xeno Lucario's side of the story, and where my sequel FanFic will follow on from there.

Enjoy.

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**Recap Prologue**

26.1: Crossroad of the Man of Bulwark

_Hikari -KINGDOM Orchestra Instrumental Version-/Kingdom Hearts Original Soundtrack Complete - CD1 - Kingdom Hearts OST/Utada Hikaru_

_(Song Begins)_

In the year 33 A.D, within the remote village of Saudi Arabia, in the middle of a desert of apparent nothingness, a boy by the name of Eduardo resided as a secluded citizen. This child was born with extraordinary intelligence, which he used to construct an underground laboratory within his own home, filled it to the brim with various technological marvels that won't exist for another two millennia, as well as with various gene-spliced biological fruits that under normal circumstances don't exist.

His parents, rarely home because of their career choice as mercenary soldiers, have left him alone for most of his childhood, with no one to look after him, and no one to befriend. However, when two orphaned boys by the name of Costas and Ian stumble inadvertently within his own laboratory, Eduardo quickly befriends them and accepts them as brothers to his own family.

Unfortunately, a cryptic letter from a Roman General tells the three of them of the passing of Eduardo's parents in battle. And from that letter, Eduardo's fire, fueled from the spite of the Roman Empire, began to burn.

As the years passed, as Eduardo and his adopted brothers were reaching their late teens, Eduardo had an idea, to create a storage device that had no tangible limits. The process for developing the core of this device—a black hole—proved to be both dangerous and a formidable test for Eduardo's intelligence and patience, but eventually he succeeded after 160 attempts. He manufactured the first of his self-proclaimed "S-Rank" inventions: the S1-GS device, dubbed "Grand Storage Sphere" by his brothers and accepted by Eduardo as a nickname.

As he celebrated his success with his brothers, the three of them were visited by, of all possible people, three Roman soldiers, who enigmatically caught word of his S1-GS device. Sensing the danger at hand, Eduardo and his brothers fled into their laboratory, where they retrieved their weapons, safeguarded the device, and stood to impede—and hopefully repel—the Roman threat. Unfortunately, the three of them, skilled enough to hold their own against these professional soldiers, were defeated in battle. Then, they were held as prisoners until the remaining soldiers—and their general—in this Roman legion arrived.

Once they did, the leader of the Roman legion identified and introduced himself to Eduardo by the name of Mercury, which coincidentally turned out to be the _same_ person that killed Eduardo's mother and father. However, even though revenge for Mercury's actions flared within Eduardo's mind, they weren't carried out in the form of action. Because, when Mercury managed to obtain the S1-GS device from Eduardo's advanced security systems, he felt it fitting to dispose of _all_ of the citizens within the village.

Eduardo and his brothers were nailed by their palms and feet onto thin wooden stakes, and hoisted into the air to view first-hand Mercury's conquest of his home village. And despite Eduardo feeling utter hopelessness at seeing Mercury's Roman battalion decimate the village's whole, one residence after another, both of his brothers still believed that hope shouldn't be lost, so long as none of us give up.

Hearing their words of invigoration, Eduardo felt a replenished drive to retaliate against this invasion. And deep within him, a power that no one thought possible surfaced forth from him, a power that he classified as "Elemental Aura". With this unexplained power, Eduardo not only managed to retrieve the S1-GS device back into his possession, but also managed to _single-handedly_ obliterate Mercury's entire legion of 999 soldiers, sparing Mercury himself for the pleasure of finishing him last, as the 1,000th.

However, when Mercury indirectly exposed the fact that he had nothing to do with the death of Eduardo's parents, and that the letter was nothing more than a fictitious description of a bitterly true event, Eduardo felt _just_ enough mercy to spare him, and even construct for him a boat to reach home.

With Mercury gone and his legion annihilated, Eduardo and his brothers proceeded to return home. But before Eduardo managed to do so, he caught a quick glimpse of the brewing instability that his fellow neighbors were displaying. The instability amongst them suggested that they _clearly_ didn't see Eduardo as a hero that saved their village from the ambition that Rome had in expanding their conquered territory, but rather as a bloodthirsty monster that killed hundreds of soldiers with enigmatically acquired, bizarre and _unexplainable_ abilities that allowed him to manipulate various attributes with nothing more than his inner aura.

Sensing the inevitable riot, Eduardo retreated into the depths of his underground laboratory, to gather supplies for his departure. Both of his brothers, knowing that the person that accepted them both into his family was about to leave and never return, felt it appropriate to bid him farewell. And when Eduardo appeared outside of his house once again, the surviving villagers were beginning to prepare an uprising in driving him out.

Eduardo, bidding his own brothers farewell in return, fled from the village, outrunning the population giving chase, and accepting the life of a banished individual.

Meanwhile, two months later, when Mercury returned to Rome, he proceeded to the Throne Room of the palace of the fourth Roman Emperor Claudius. Mercury discussed the mission results that occurred at the remote village where Eduardo inhabited. Claudius dismissed him until his next assignment, and pondered how the S1-GS that Eduardo had manufactured was never his intention to obtain. Instead, he sought a different objective. He sought to have Eduardo's inner powers awaken. And based on Mercury's report of his mission "failure", Claudius had succeeded.

For Eduardo, over a year had passed since his banishment, and he found himself having wandered within the same body of land that his home village resided on, according to the map function of his recently-constructed second "S-Rank" invention: the S2-PTSDO device, standing for "Portable Two-Screen Digital 'Omni-computer'", but nicknamed "Different System" for ease of reference. He searched for a place to rest after walking for a tiring distance during his travels. And after further inspection of the land, he found a piece of land that he deemed welcoming, in the form of a grassy hillside with a tree on its apex.

However, the area wasn't as halcyon and relaxing as it seemed. Because shortly after he decided to rest within the area, he found himself face-to-face with a vicious winged dragon, with black scales and a blacker aura, having appeared before him out of seemingly nowhere.

Thankfully, through a difficult battle between Eduardo and this mysterious intruder, Eduardo proved victorious. However, despite having its body scattered across the landscape, the dragon didn't appear finished. Instead, when Eduardo approached the mutilated head, the dragon spoke to him of a puzzling entity, one that was out of his power to endure against, escape from, or prevent. And then, as a parting gift, the dragon struck Eduardo in the left eye, knocking him unconscious while simultaneously rendering that same eye useless.

When Eduardo regained consciousness after the questionable ordeal, he quickly discovered that, even after his left eye had been healed of its injury thanks to his Elemental Aura abilities, the damage had already dug itself too deep and proved irreversible. Deciding to cut his losses there, Eduardo simply placed an eye patch over his ruined eye, and then pondered two topics to himself: why no trace of the dragon remained, not even its own spilled blood on the grass, and what was this "It" that the scaled beast was referring to.

The years continued to pass for Eduardo after that unusual event, leaving him now at the adolescent age of twenty-seven. And quite recently with his newly-acquired age, Eduardo decided to create a third invention that was worthy of the self-named title "S-Rank": the S3-OSS device, the "OSS" standing for "Optical Surveillance Sphere".

And as he was testing this latest invention, all twenty-six aesthetically different versions of the same device concept, Eduardo felt a shred of curiosity in using one of those devices to observe the village from which he was banished from over a decade ago. In doing so, he noticed Rome's military forces attempting to conquer his former home village, with his former neighbors standing in their path to impede their progress.

And despite the great danger that his village was facing, Eduardo no longer felt it appropriate to defend that place, the village that drove him out despite his heroic choice of actions long ago.

However, because of an encounter with an enigmatic hooded figure, his choice on the matter was premeditatedly decided for him, whether he wanted to initiate it or not.

Before Eduardo knew it, he had been transported to the center of the conflict between the Roman military and the village citizens, within his home village. And after eyeing both of his brothers after a decade of absence, Eduardo confronted the Roman military, only to immediately discover that his Elemental Aura abilities had temporarily left him. Sensing something was amiss with Eduardo, both Costas and Ian took him back to his former laboratory, telling him that their village could handle things from here.

Within the underground laboratory, after Eduardo had bluntly stated that he arrived here against his will, he also said that he was well equipped to fight against enemy forces, even without Elemental Aura abilities. Both of his brothers, knowing that Eduardo spoke the truth, accompanied him to the surface and confronted the Roman threat.

Upon reaching the surface, all three of them watched at the conflagrations and the ruin that the vast majority of the village had succumbed to under Roman General Mars's invasion. And immediately at seeing this, the inner rage that Eduardo had within him flared forth, and took shape in the unforeseen form of a white-scaled winged dragon, through the most disturbingly graphic metamorphosis imaginable before his brothers.

With this new body that tripled his height and increased his weight to half a ton, Eduardo simultaneously combated Mars's Roman legion alongside his own fatigue from the transformation, and accumulating injuries that Mars's forces dealt him. And through brute force and sheer force of will, all of Mars's soldiers fell in battle, one after the other, until all that remained was Mars himself. And with one attack, Eduardo obliterated the entrails of the fear-struck Roman General, before tossing his gutted carcass into the Red Sea.

With the battle won, Eduardo hobbled back over to his former house where his two brothers awaited him, moments before exhaustion finally strangled the consciousness out of him. Both of them, alongside his former neighbors, saw past his scaly exterior and looked at his choice of actions, seeing how he still chose to save the people of this village, even after they had cast him away, even with power that can be easily used antagonistically, but was never decreed so. Proof of this came in the form of the villagers helping out his brothers in carried Eduardo's massive body into the laboratory, where he could recover and rest after a victorious battle.

When Eduardo awoke a fair amount of time afterward, his brothers were there, to make sure that he was alright, and to ask him what was on their mind. Afterwards, Eduardo told them that he would plan on reverting himself back to normal, and he promptly got up on his feet once more to begin his task at hand. However, both Costas and Ian, before giving their brother a chance to leave the door, told him how the villagers had offered their hand in bringing him here. Eduardo noticed their presence, and they promptly began to apologize to him, for their blind actions over a decade ago. This mass forgiveness proved far too emotional for Eduardo, and he couldn't help but forgive them, and then apologize for his uncontrollable draconic tone of voice.

After tending to the village by reconstructing the houses and paying respect for the deceased, Eduardo spent the majority of his time searching for a way to return to normality. And after achieving his breakthrough, Eduardo manufactured a healing tank for the solution that would return him to normal. Without any complications, the experiment proved successful in returning Eduardo back to normal, much to the relief of his brothers and the observing villagers.

However, shortly afterward, the hooded figure intruded into Eduardo's underground laboratory. And instead of picking a fight with him, for reasons known only to the hooded figure, he decided to give me some information instead, information that Mars tried to bribe his way out of death by telling Eduardo, and that his brothers would've told him in time, if he didn't put it off for this long.

He spoke to Eduardo of an extraterrestrial—an Aura Pokémon by the name of Xeno Lucario—that arrived into this world through a rift in space. This alien individual arrived and resided here over one month ago—_before_ Eduardo's return here—, and then ran off after defeating Mars's first and _failed_ invasion attempt here, searching for a way to return home. After saying what he needed to, the hooded figure took his leave, leaving Eduardo's brothers to fill in the blanks that the hooded figure left.

Afterwards, they tell Eduardo what he plans to do next, and he says that he's going to locate Xeno, especially since his brothers hinted Xeno about Eduardo, how the Aura Pokémon might possess acumen keen enough to help his cause, and how Xeno is locating Eduardo as well. Also, because of Xeno Lucario's skills in wielding aura, Eduardo might have some questions in his life answered through the Aura Pokémon.

Thankfully, with the S3-OSS devices that Eduardo possesses, locating Xeno Lucario will only take a matter of time.

Surprisingly quickly afterward, thanks to the optical range and Mach 2 speed that Eduardo's S3-OSS devices can blanket over the Earth, he managed to locate Xeno Lucario, who appeared badly injured and hemorrhaging on the hillside that Eduardo had visited once before. When the S3-OSS devices returned to Eduardo, the three of them held two of them in each hand and used them to fly over to Xeno's location, Eduardo using his Elemental Aura abilities to reach Xeno at top speed, without wind resistance getting in his way.

Upon reaching Xeno's location, Eduardo assimilated the situation—Xeno Lucario lying unconscious and bleeding profusely before five avaricious Roman nomads—and checked for Xeno's pulse, hoping to feel for signs of life, only to receive coldness of skin and blood in return. And when the five Roman nomads boldly placed their economic interests over Eduardo on what to do over Xeno's body, Eduardo's vehemence erupted forth before them, in the form of Black (Darkness) Aura. With that power and with negative emotion symbiotically supporting each other, the five Roman nomads were obliterated, just as Costas and Ian arrived to the scene.

The three of them analyzed Xeno's gruesome injuries, Eduardo forming the diagnosis that Xeno endured fifty lacerations on the front half of his body, and fifty more on the back half of his body. Eduardo believes that Xeno is dead, due to the fatal hemorrhaging he sustained. Oddly enough, his brothers strongly disagree, saying that Xeno is much stronger than this, and that Eduardo hasn't gotten to see his combative attributes in person yet. They even tell him to feel for his pulse again. Eduardo reluctantly did so, believing that they're entering denial over his death.

However, Eduardo is immediately silenced of his opinion when he feels a very faint pulse from Xeno's apparently cadaverous body. And immediately after detecting faint signs of life, Eduardo quickly retrieved his fourth "S-Rank" invention—the S4-BW ("Bio-Welder")—and hastily began to mend all of Xeno's injuries. And when all of Xeno's injuries were taken care of, his heart bean was returning to normal as well. Eduardo saved Xeno's life, and his brothers are greatly thankful that he managed to do so.

In waiting for Xeno to awake from his slumber, Eduardo decided to take a moment to explain to his brothers about key events that occurred to him during his banishment, and various other topics that they showed curiosity over. Afterwards, Eduardo ogled Xeno's equipment that rested in a neat pile by the tree's trunk: the battle armor and the utility belt that had various Poké Balls strapped onto it.

Eduardo began to dissect all of Xeno's belongings within his mind, analyzing the materials that composed the battle armor, as well as who manufactured it—Team Rocket—and the date of manufacture—2010. Then, he downloaded all of the data within Xeno's helmet and scanned through it. From the data, what caught Eduardo's eye was the aesthetic similarity of his first three "S-Rank" devices with items that were present within the databanks and the Poké Balls that Xeno had on his possession.

And when Eduardo reached into the Pokédex program within the downloaded information from the databanks of Xeno's helmet, he scrolled through the hundreds of Pokémon that the Pokédex program had on file, paying special attention to the ones that Xeno had bookmarked for quick reference: #004: Charmander, #005: Charmeleon, #006: Charizard, #131: Lapras, #150: Mewtwo, #246: Larvitar, #247: Pupitar, #348: Tyranitar, #253: Grovyle, #254: Sceptile, #255: Torchic, #256: Combusken, #304: Aron, #305: Lairon, #306: Aggron, #355: Duskull, #356: Dusclops, #359: Absol, #374: Beldum, #375: Metang, #380: Latias, #381: Latios, #403: Shinx, #404: Luxio, #405: Luxray, #445: Garchomp, #447: Riolu, #448: Lucario, #477: Dusknoir, #483: Dialga, #484: Palkia, and #487: Giratina. All of these Pokémon left Eduardo and his brothers puzzled in the workings of Xeno's parallel Earth.

Eventually, Eduardo decided to briefly return to his underground laboratory, to check on the maintenance systems of his Berry plants, and used two of his S3-OSS devices to reach there, leaving both Costas and Ian to watch on at Xeno's wellbeing.

When Eduardo was returning, he noticed that Lucario had awakened, and was amongst both Costas and Ian. Eduardo descended down before the three of them, and apparently had Xeno stare at him unwaveringly. Upon seeing this, Eduardo asked Xeno Lucario a few questions, how he was feeling after his mass laceration ordeal, if he was hungry, and how he obtained his injuries earlier. The first two questions were answered with vague silence, and the third came in the form of an attack that was too swift for Eduardo to defend against, knocking him out cold with a METAL CLAW swipe across his countenance's left side and a SKY UPPERCUT to the chin.

When Eduardo awakened from enduring Xeno's one-two sucker punches, he noticed that only Costas and Ian were present before him, the Aura Pokémon disappearing from the setting altogether. His brothers explain to him what occurred, how Xeno warped away for perplexing reasons, after receiving an unbearable headache after contemplating having struck the person named Eduardo.

Rather than show spite over Xeno's unusual choice of actions, Eduardo attempts to ponder the reasons why from Xeno's perspective, and contemplates searching for him once more with the S3-OSS devices. Both Costas and Ian manned the controls to Eduardo's S2 and S3 devices, while he tended to his injury, noticing that the most he sustained from Xeno's METAL CLAW was a scar on his blank, left eye.

The search for Xeno consumed the time of the night and progressed until early next morning, where Eduardo remained awake in receiving any feedback from any one of his S3-OSS devices. Thankfully, one of them finally located Xeno, identifying his location to be, of all possible places, within an Empty Lot in Rome, prepped for slaughter by the Roman Emperor Nero.

Contemplating his methods of reaching the Aura Pokémon in time, the _only_ method that had the highest chance of success was transmogrifying into that dragon form, and then amplifying his flying speed with Light Green (Wind) Aura to the point where supersonic flight was not only possible, but _exceeded_ the speed at which the S3-OSS devices were capable of reaching.

In attempting to access the dragon form within him, Eduardo meditated and entered the confines of his own cerebrum. Within his consciousness, he found himself descending down a sable abyss, until he reached a platform in the shape of a star-shaped pentagram, surrounded by a circle in all five points, and emanating a crimson light in the darkness.

Eduardo's dragon form appeared shortly after he touched down. The dragon half of Eduardo asks him why he divided himself and sealed this monstrosity within his mind. Eduardo responds by saying he has no idea what he's talking about, and asks to unite their power into one, in order to rescue Xeno from Roman clutches. The dragon half explains how this power only destroys those within reach, replaying the events of Eduardo's clash with Mars in the process from beginning to end.

Eduardo counter-argued his dragon half by saying that, under his control and choice of actions, this raw power was used with defense in mind, to ward off oncoming threats that threatened the safety of those that he loved and valued, and would never become otherwise as long as Eduardo lived with full awareness of his actions. The background, during this argument, reflected the after-effects of Eduardo's battle with Mars and his legion, where the eyes of all of the villagers, as well as those of Costas and Ian, looked at this massive winged reptile with gratitude and respect, no longer with fear or with uncertainty.

Eduardo's dragon half, surprisingly, began to cry at the freedom that it missed, ever since being locked away within Eduardo's mind, and looking at the world through Eduardo's memories. Eduardo reached out his hand to his other half, saying how they'll help each other with their problems, as a whole rather than two halves. Eduardo's dragon half accepted, extended out its hand, and connected with his own, instantly shifting the darkness within this mental setting into blinding white light, where the two of them became one once more.

In doing so, this sparked the question in how Eduardo's dragon half became separated in the first place, and why there existed no shred of memory on the matter.

Back into reality, with newfound power in mind that could turn the tides on Xeno's fate, Eduardo formed a cocoon of aura around himself with the twelve Elemental Aura abilities that he'd learned so far, creating a rainbow veil where his risk-free metamorphosis was taking place. Both of his brothers awoke at the moment where this cocoon dispersed, leaving their eyes to behold him when Eduardo became the white dragon once more.

With absolute confidence, Eduardo assured them that when he returned, there would be a total of four individuals accounted for. And after saying that, Eduardo rocketed towards Rome—crossing over the Mediterranean Sea in the process—at the sound shredding speed of Mach 3, leaving my brothers to ponder just how little they _truly_ know about him.

The ridiculous speed that Eduardo was travelling at allowed him to reach Rome, to reach Xeno Lucario, just in the nick of time. However, he only arrived quickly enough to intercept Nero striking Xeno with his Gladius sword, by standing directly _between_ the two of them, and being on the receiving end of the thrust of his sword. The end result was Eduardo being penetrated through the abdomen by Nero's Gladius sword, which promptly disappeared after being eaten away by Eduardo's acidic dragon blood.

With Xeno safe and assured in the fact that Eduardo was here in time to stop Xeno's own execution, Eduardo began to converse with Nero, the Emperor of the Roman Empire. Nero showed great signs of spite for my choice of actions against his military forces, which have impeded his ideals for further Roman conquest. Eduardo responds by saying that it was all brought on him after his forces killed Eduardo's parents and attempted to conquer the village where Eduardo was born, cementing Eduardo's rage towards their civilization. Eduardo stated that he would continue to fight to protect those that he loved, from ruthless people who wish to see it all under their rule. And to conclude the conversation, Nero stated that he will not rest until Rome overlaps the whole world and that the two of them cease to exist, moments before Eduardo flicked a finger onto his forehead and knocked him unconscious.

And after disposing of the ten Roman guards within the Empty Lot, and then having Xeno tend to Eduardo's injuries and vice versa, Eduardo explains to Xeno how he had to gamble in accessing this form under his own power in order to save his life, and Xeno is just thankful that everything worked out for the better.

In wanting to leave Rome as fast as possible, Xeno Lucario rode on Eduardo's back as he flew up into the sky and onward towards both Costas and Ian. Nero awoke from his unconsciousness soon after, and contemplated how to rid the world of both Eduardo and Xeno Lucario, moments before the hooded figure appeared before the Roman Emperor.

_(Song Ends)_

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26.2: Crossroad of the Aura Pokémon of Prophecy

_March Caprice for Piano and Orchestra/Kingdom Hearts Original Soundtrack Complete - CD2 - Kingdom Hearts OST/Yoko Shimomura_

_(Song Begins)_

Late in the 20th century, within a forest north of Celadon City of the Kanto region of the Pokémon world, an egg was present by a tree's trunk on the forest floor. In the form a bright light, the egg hatched and exposed a dark-furred Riolu, curled up and sleeping soundly where the egg once was.

After awakening from his slumber, this Riolu explored the forest location of his birth, and stumbled upon some Sitrus Berries that he deeply enjoyed upon first bite. And after strolling deeper through the forest, he eventually encountered a hostile Absol, one with the intent of killing the dark-furred Riolu.

The dark-furred Riolu, at first, attempted to run away from the oncoming threat, but eventually stood his ground and clashed with the Disaster Pokémon. They both bloodied each other, and Riolu managed to crack Absol's face with an AURA SPHERE—a Pokémon technique that is normally out of a Riolu's level of understanding until evolving—, prior to collapsing afterward.

Unfortunately, that Absol still had enough fight left in it and desired to inflict the final blow that would end the dark-furred Riolu's brief life. However, just before Absol could do so, another Riolu, normal in terms of fur color, caught Absol off guard and managed to KO it.

Shortly after doing so, that Riolu called for its friend Grovyle for assistance. The Riolu carried the wounded dark-furred Riolu back to Grovyle's tree house, and had Grovyle carry Absol back with them as well, feeling conflicted if it didn't do so.

When the dark-furred Riolu awakened, both Grovyle and the normal-furred Riolu were there beside it, where they introduced themselves formally, the normal-furred Riolu mentioning its nickname of "Tiny" Riolu in the process. The Absol that Riolu clashed with earlier was here as well, being awakened through the noise that he was making when Grovyle and Tiny were forcing him to remain in bed to recover from his injuries.

Out of curiosity, Riolu asked Tiny what aura was, when the topic was brought up, and then stated that he believed that he used AURA SPHERE in his battle with Absol. Tiny grew astonished at Riolu's ability to use a technique that is normally out of their level of prowess, and even agreed in teaching Riolu what it knew about aura-based techniques. With glee, Riolu accepted, unaware of the grin that Absol formed at the thought of combating this Riolu to the death, once its strength was tempered through training.

A total of thirty months passed since Grovyle and Tiny accepted Riolu and agreed to train him, the Absol that clashed with Riolu spend the same amount of time in solitude training as well, with the drive to kill Riolu when the two of them have heightened themselves martially. During this period of time, Riolu evolved into a well-trained Lucario, and Grovyle evolved into a Sceptile, with Tiny remaining a Riolu because of its personal choice.

During the day where Absol would return, Lucario had a nightmare, where he envisioned his forest home burning in flames, and the Pokémon inhabiting it being captured by humanoid silhouettes with a bright red "R" as their insignia, moments before he dreamed he was captured himself by their leader.

Once morning came and he awoke in a cold sweat, Lucario proceeded to the waterfall within his forest home to wash up and meditate, alongside Tiny who was there for a morning swim, as well as Sceptile who tended to its chores. And upon returning home, Tiny explained of its bitter past with Absol to both Lucario and Sceptile, and how it felt Absol should be kept alive so that Tiny could kill it in its peak condition.

Upon reaching the forest's Cliffside, Lucario confronted Absol, who was just waiting for Lucario to arrive. Both Sceptile and Tiny—alongside a light-furred Lucario by the nickname of "Wanderer"—added themselves to the observing audience of the battle.

Through a long and brutal battle between Absol and Lucario, Absol explained its reasoning for wanting Lucario dead. It mentions how its family, when Absol was at an earlier age, fell victim to Lucario over a mere dispute of territory, and it has been fighting vindictively against any Riolu and Lucario that it meets ever since, out of vengeance.

The end result of the battle left the two of them brutally wounded and bloody from their powerful attacks. Thankfully, Lucario proved victorious in the battle, managing to knock Absol off of the cliff with an AURA SPHERE. However the battle proved too much for his consciousness to bear, and he fell unconscious soon after, almost falling off of the cliff himself in the process, were it not for Sceptile, Tiny, and Wanderer preventing exactly that. The three of them brought Lucario back to the tree house to recover.

When Lucario awakened, he was introduced to Wanderer, a Lucario that Sceptile once traveled alongside with. Once introduced, Lucario decided to ask Wanderer a few questions, one of them being why Wanderer was here. Wanderer responded by saying that it heard of a clash between a Lucario and an Absol, and felt like seeing it.

At one point, Wanderer mentions a myth inscribed in one of the pillars on Spear Pillar, of a Pokémon that defies their basic normality, but knows very little else because it didn't decipher the Unown's language completely. At another point, Wanderer describes its battle with Ho-Oh, how it was out of boredom, and how it resulted in a stalemate. Afterward, all three of them went to sleep, Wanderer deciding to remain in this forest rather than its home in the Sinnoh region's Snowpoint Mountains.

Over thirteen years passed since that day, the four of them learning much in terms of martial skills, and having various tasks that keep them occupied within their forest residence.

During Lucario's practice in learning how to FLY, he noticed a group of helicopters flying and approaching his forest home, bearing with them a threat in the form of Team Rocket. Some of the helicopters flew directly overhead of Sceptile's tree house, with Lucario following closely behind. The Team Rocket Grunts within those helicopters dropped down beside Sceptile's tree house, and then set it ablaze with their Fire-Type Pokémon, much to Lucario's horror as he watched from a safe distance.

The blaze, despite engulfing Sceptile's tree house in a conflagration of four-digit heat, didn't consume either of the residents—Sceptile and Tiny—within. Instead, they were spared the full force of the fire by Tiny's PROTECT technique, which unfortunately left it critically drained of energy. And after Sceptile made it clear to them that they were resisting capture, the Grunts released their Koffing and Weezing, having them envelop both Sceptile and Tiny, before giving them the order to detonate at pointblank range. Lucario, knowing that there wasn't a moment to waste, attempted to reach both Sceptile and Tiny, in an effort to save them from the SELFDESTRUCT and EXPLOSION techniques from the Koffing and Weezing.

However, he reached Sceptile and Tiny a split second too late, and both gaseous Pokémon detonated in a dense ball of fire, knocking Lucario back from the shockwave. The Grunts surrounded him, noting that Lucario wasn't knocked out, but taking into account the demise of Sceptile and Tiny. And in bitter retaliation for the loss of his friends, Lucario mowed down both the Grunts and their Fire-Type Pokémon, before proceeding over to aid Wanderer against the remaining Team Rocket personnel.

Upon reaching there, Wanderer immediately gave up its freedom by giving Lucario the chance to retain his own, by having a Great Ball capture itself rather than Lucario. And shortly afterward, the action occurring within the setting subsided when all of the other Pokémon were captured as well, leaving Lucario alone against Team Rocket.

Giovanni, the leader of Team Rocket makes himself present before Lucario, and explained of his organization to the point where Lucario vomited at their anti-moral viewpoints on Pokémon. Giovanni then sent out a Machamp from an Ultra Ball to combat Lucario, only to have it perish under Lucario might.

However, the Steelix that Giovanni sent out of its Heavy Ball fared much better against Lucario, and actually managed to imprison him with its steel-hard coils, slowly suffocating him to the point where Giovanni successfully captured him with "Team Rocket's Poké Ball". And with the satisfaction of capturing such a powerful Pokémon for his organization's use, Giovanni and his remaining Team Rocket personnel returned to their headquarters via helicopter.

They crossed over Kanto's Mt. Moon and continued hundreds of miles northward, away from any other human residence and into Team Rocket Main Headquarters, a massive building structure that resides in solitude and secrecy. Giovanni and his following staff handed over their Poké Balls to an unsuspecting Grunt, who would then take them to their HQ basement's holding cells. Both Wanderer and Lucario were transported into their own respective holding cell, Wanderer having to be knocked unconscious through a brutal electric shock, and Lucario still unconscious after his ordeal with Giovanni's Steelix.

Once Lucario awakened within his holding cell, he noticed two other Pokémon held within other holding cells adjacent of his own: a Lapras by the nickname of "Aqua" and a Garchomp by the nickname of "Terra". Both of them appeared very depressed, until Lucario explained that Team Rocket is to blame for all of this. Lucario, through a speech with its power coming from the pain he feels from Team Rocket's cruel actions, vows to free all of the Pokémon that Team Rocket has captured, and then crush Giovanni with his own two paws. His ambition motivates both Aqua and Terra to join his cause, "Team Liberator" as Lucario has decided to name his faction.

Moments later, the three of them hear Giovanni and his personal armed bodyguards approaching their location. Giovanni opened the locked holding cell containing Lucario and told him to come with him, explaining that he doesn't want Lucario to be just another Pokémon tool in Team Rocket. Lucario, in order to remain alive to fulfill his secret initiative, complied with Giovanni's intentions, and followed submissively, until he noticed a wounded Wanderer within a nearby holding cell.

He struck Giovanni and was then impeded by Giovanni's bodyguards from delivering a fatal blow. And just before Giovanni's bodyguards could drive their bullets into Lucario's skull, Giovanni told them to stand down, and then explained how their weapons worked when he noticed Lucario ogling them.

Afterward, they all proceeded to the top floor of Team Rocket Main Headquarters, where both Giovanni and Lucario entered. Giovanni proceeded to register the new Pokémon that were within the holding cells—which included Aqua, Terra, and Wanderer—and then return them to their respective Poké Balls—a Net Ball, a Quick Ball, and a Great Ball. Afterwards, Giovanni asked Lucario to step into the machine so that he could analyze his quintessence.

During the process, Giovanni explained that he would rather see Lucario as a member of Team Rocket, the second Pokémon ever to become so, rather than as another Pokémon for a Grunt to use as a tool. Lucario pondered the opportunity as beneficial to his "Team Liberator" initiative, because he'll learn far more about Team Rocket and likely recruit some Pokémon for his cause as well. Giovanni also explains that Lucario is no ordinary Pokémon, because he's about as powerful as a Legendary Pokémon, and has no technique restrictions whatsoever, because of his "Inheritance" ability—as Lucario was given the opportunity to name.

Lucario, once he stepped out of Giovanni's machine, asked of the first Pokémon to join Team Rocket. Giovanni explained it to be a man-made Pokémon, created under his orders. It possessed enough power to reduce the laboratory that it was created in—and all of its scientists—into nothing more than a burning heap of machinery adrift in the sea. And compared to Lucario, this Pokémon's greatest difference is that it's far more savage in battle. To end the topic, Giovanni already made plans to house the two of them within the floor below them.

Later, Giovanni handed Lucario an Expert Belt to help amplify his power, three Pokémon for his personal use—Aqua, Terra, and Wanderer—and a copy of the data that the machine analyzed from his being. The last two things that Giovanni gave Lucario was a nickname—Xeno—and the key to his new private quarters. And when "Xeno" Lucario took his leave, Giovanni pondered sinisterly about what to do when both the man-made Pokémon—Mewtwo—and "Xeno" Lucario evolve in terms of martial power.

Under a new name and under the roof of a new home, Xeno Lucario settled himself within Room 29-6 of Team Rocket Main Headquarters. He released the three Pokémon he had in his possession, only to find that they're all unconscious. And after awakening Terra with the sharp tip of his paw spike, Mewtwo entered its new room and helped Xeno awaken the other two Pokémon with its psychic power. They all introduced themselves and made themselves comfortable within their new room. And during the night, Xeno explained to Mewtwo about his "Team Liberator" proposal, convincing the Genetic Pokémon to acquire a few Pokémon of its own when given the chance to, in order to help Xeno out. However, he wasn'table to convince it to join his cause, because Mewtwo wanted the opportunity to control its unstable powers and saw Giovanni as someone who has the capability and resources to be able to.

The next day, both Mewtwo and Xeno were equipped with their very own battle armor, before being cast on their first few missions, which either involved capturing Pokémon at select locations around the world, or train under the Viridian Gym, under Giovanni as the Gym Leader. Regardless, the two of them—alongside their respective party of Pokémon that they've befriended and worked alongside with—grew from their assortment of experiences and hardships, some of them vital while others questionable or demoralizing, during the year that they were under Team Rocket.

Eventually, Mewtwo found it within itself to leave Team Rocket altogether, after hearing Giovanni explain to it that it only exists to serve under him and then burying him underneath a destroyed Viridian Gym. As a final farewell to Team Rocket Main Headquarters—when in reality it was to Xeno—Mewtwo left within Room 29-6 a package containing its former party of Pokémon, as well as a letter explaining its reasons for leaving, and a utility belt that can have Poké Balls strapped onto it. And as Mewtwo flew across the vast oceans—pondering what would occur if the authority of humanity and Pokémon swapped places—, it never even sensed the presence of two disembodied, white-gloved hands, watching on at its progress in life.

Lucario, after receiving the package and dissecting its contents before himself and to his eight colleagues—"Aqua" Lapras, Charmeleon, Dusknoir, Lairon, Luxray, "Terra" Garchomp, Tyranitar, and "Wanderer" Lucario—, he noticed a wounded Giovanni arrive into the infirmary ward of Team Rocket Main Headquarters, and proceeded to visit him there.

Once there, and after a few chess matches against him, Giovanni explained to Xeno how similar Team Rocket is to the game of chess, from its pieces—aside from the queen piece—to its objective of decisive victory. Giovanni then explains how useful the two of them were in amassing Pokémon into Team Rocket, and what he intends to use them for: to overthrow the Elite Four and Gym Leaders of all of the world's regions, and then ruling the world when the last major resistance is abolished.

After hearing this, Xeno returned to Room 29-6, leaving Giovanni to ponder how likely it is for him to follow Mewtwo's path to freedom. Upon reaching his respective room, he told all of his colleagues that the time to escape is near.

Late at night, after a brief rest, Xeno and his colleagues initiated Team Liberator's Escape Plan. During the night, Xeno and his colleagues withdrew Pokémon within the holding cells and returned them to their Poké Balls, knocked out present Grunts before salvaging their Poké Balls, demolished all but one of Team Rocket's transportation vehicles, and downloaded their entire data banks within the helmet of Xeno's battle armor, before he himself retrieved his armor and equipped it. At one point, Wanderer handed Xeno a Luxury Ball that had no respective Pokémon to it, and he held onto it.

Once they reached the first floor, carrying alongside them a treasure trove of hundreds of assorted and occupied Poké Balls, they began to load themselves and their cargo within the twin-rotary helicopter that remained. And as they were about to make their leave, Giovanni—despite being injured from his ordeal with Mewtwo—made himself present before them, clad in advanced battle armor and proving to be a bulwark in preventing their escape.

Because of this, Xeno was forced to make a difficult choice. He decided to stay behind and face Giovanni one-on-one, having to _brutally_ shove off a tearful Wanderer inadvertently in the process. This allowed his colleagues to escape and conduct Phase Three of their initiative without him.

Through a vehement and spiteful battle between Giovanni and Xeno Lucario, Xeno proved to be an overwhelming force that Giovanni had originally shaped to do his own and his organization's bidding, but no longer held the leash to command him. At one point, Giovanni managed to inject Xeno with a lethal dose of Pokérus, only to have him shrug it off as though it were nothing. To end the battle, Xeno froze Giovanni solid with SHEER COLD, before escaping as dawn began to emerge across the sky, leaving his former "master" to rage his way out of the ice.

Once Xeno reached Mt. Moon as he began his attempt at locating his colleagues' whereabouts, he noticed the presence of a pair of Pokémon stalking his progress: a submissive Beldum and a persistent Torchic, two Pokémon that were discreetly watching his battle with Giovanni. They asked if they could accompany Xeno and ask for training from him, but Xeno regarded their safety first and leaves them behind in order to return to his Celadon Forest home. Both Beldum and Torchic follow closely behind anyway.

Upon reaching Celadon Forest, Xeno returns to three areas that he recalls vividly before he was captured away by Team Rocket. He proceeds firstly to the Cliffside within Celadon Forest, where he recalled a life-and-death battle with Absol. Secondly, Xeno goes to the charred remains of Sceptile's tree house, painfully remembering the fate of both Sceptile and Tiny in the process. Thirdly, Xeno travelled to the waterfall within Celadon Forest, and decided to meditate underneath it as he used to do, allowing both Beldum and Torchic to catch up to him. Xeno comes to accept them as new additions to his party, as long as he is able to bestow them the power to ward off looming threats.

The three of them proceed further within Celadon Forest, noticing an enclosed area that is completely leveled of its trees, caused by a Pokémon that they've yet to identify. Further into the forest, the three of them stumble upon the decaying cadavers of a human and its Pokémon partners. Xeno retrieves two Poké Balls from the carcass—a Friend Ball and an Ultra Ball—before noticing that both Beldum and Torchic scurried off out of fear.

Before following after them, another Pokémon rushed after them before Xeno could. Deciding to not take a chance and to act quickly, Xeno managed to capture Beldum with the Ultra Ball and Torchic with the Friend Ball, moments before the trees around the two of them were leveled in the blink of an eye.

And when both Poké Balls returned to him, the Pokémon that was responsible for Celadon Forest's deforestation made itself present before Xeno as Sceptile. This Sceptile proved to be the same exact one that he thought was obliterated by Team Rocket over a year ago, only now Sceptile possessed a considerable amount of burns and scars over its body, no longer had its right arm, and now brandished a buster sword that was its exact size in length. It threatened Xeno to leave its forest territory, much to his surprise at Sceptile's negative behavior.

Through a brief clash, Sceptile identifies the fact that it lost someone in its life, which Xeno clarifies as Tiny. Sceptile recalls that bitter day, explaining how the explosion knocked both it and Tiny back, and giving them severe injuries in the process. It recalls digging a fair distance away to escape the human threat, before emerging to the surface and taking into account Tiny's grave injuries. All that Sceptile could do was converse with it until death removed Tiny's suffering.

Understanding that words wouldn't knock Sceptile back to its senses, Xeno clashed with Sceptile once more when the moment flared itself. And through a heated battle within the jungle that they inhabited, Xeno managed to deal a decisive blow onto Sceptile's forehead with his BLAZE KICK technique. However, Sceptile proved resilient enough to continue, and grasped Xeno before siphoning his strength with GIGA DRAIN, managing to replenish itself and simultaneously rendering Xeno unconscious.

But before Sceptile could kill Xeno, a LUSTER PURGE attack by a third Pokémon strikes Sceptile and knocks it out. That same Pokémon uses HEAL PULSE on Xeno, causing him to rise back on his feet and ogle Sceptile's present state of body, before speaking to the Aura Pokémon that it just rendered Sceptile unconscious. And through Xeno's helmet, the Pokémon is identified as Latios.

Latios immediately tells Xeno to capture Sceptile with the Luxury Ball in his possession, and says that it has been watching Xeno for a while when the question on how it knows Xeno has a Luxury Ball in his possession is prompted. Disregarding his thoughts of the Eon Pokémon's motives, Xeno did as he was told and captured Sceptile with the Luxury Ball. And when he released Sceptile from the same capsule, Lucario summarizes Sceptile's recent hardships and offered to give it a hug, which Sceptile immediately and tearfully accepted.

After thirty minutes of much-needed embrace, Latios impatiently tells Xeno of "someone from your distant past" that it must retrieve before flying off to bring it over. Both Sceptile and Xeno know that Latios is referring to Absol, the same one that Lucario had clashed with years ago, and was taken for granted as fallen in battle.

When in reality, Absol fell from Celadon Forest's Cliffside and splashed down on the lake below, bloody and broken after its battle with Xeno, as it was being carried downstream. It would've perished in the flowing water, were it not for Latias tending to its injuries. Absol would've returned to Xeno and seek his death, were it not for Latias's choice of actions to beneficially warp Absol's path in the right direction.

Latias asked Absol what its purpose in life is, and quickly cut it down because it'll lead Absol to its own death. Latias explains how Absol fails to see the branching outcomes of its choices and how they'll influence the viewpoints of other Pokémon. Latias says that other Pokémon will only see Absol as a genocidal monstrosity that only sought the extinction of both Riolu and Lucario, and not as a Pokémon that is avenging its beloved, deceased family.

Absol asks why Latias decided to heal it, and Latias states that it believes in second chances, and believes that Absol could use a much-needed friend. And to start Absol's second chance in life, Latias believes that it's appropriate for Absol to first pay the respects of those that it has killed.

When Latios returned with both Latias and Absol, Xeno noted Absol's present disposition and how it has changed over the years. He noted Absol's black bandana over its mouth—which shrouded an absence of lips—, as well as a missing left eye and blade-like appendage, all prices Absol paid when it clashed with Xeno years ago.

Absol approached a spiteful Xeno and assured it with honesty that it's no longer the same Pokémon that sought his species' extinction, and has changed for the better, thanks to Latias's kindness. Absol shook paws with Xeno, only to have him FORCE PALM its forehead in vindictiveness. Xeno believes that, because of Absol's blood-stained past, it is deserving of burning in hellfire, and fires an OVERHEAT attack towards it in the process.

The attack however, is intercepted by Latias, who explains to Xeno that Absol is a better Pokémon now, who repented for its past actions and spends its new lease in life by speaking for the dead. Xeno bitterly believes Absol, and boldly states that Absol must earn their trust in time. Absol agrees to this, and is awkwardly told of Tiny's passing.

Afterwards, Xeno plans on locating its Team Liberator colleagues, but doesn't know where to begin. Latias quickly informs Xeno that they're on Mirage Island, located within the Hoenn region. And with that information, they all fly over towards Mirage Island, Latios pondering how Xeno hasn't even scratched the surface of his potential.

Within Mirage Island, all of the Pokémon were settling in for temporary shelter, before they decided where to start with Phase Three of Team Liberator's Plan. Wanderer, however, was sulking over the thought that Xeno sacrificed his life in allowing them to escape from Team Rocket, and any attempt to soothe its broken spirit were in vain.

At sunset, Xeno's present party of Pokémon—Absol, Beldum, Latias, Latios, Sceptile, and Torchic—descended onto Mirage Island, directly where Team Liberator's stolen cargo helicopter was parked. Xeno tells them all to wait until he settles a personal problem with Wanderer.

Xeno approached the scene where his colleagues were attempting to cheer Wanderer up from its emotional slump and made himself present before them. They all were surprised by his presence before them and instantly welcomed him back with open arms, Wanderer as well when it let Xeno know that it no longer cared about what happened before escaping, after having taken the time to ponder it over logically.

They all hugged for a brief moment in time before Xeno called over his friends from their point of standby.

Wanderer Lucario immediately recognizes the Sceptile as the one that was presumed to have perished in an explosion, and then knows that Tiny wasn't as lucky. Wanderer also recognizes Absol as the same one that was presumed dead after Xeno's battle with it, over sixteen years ago. And after Xeno told Wanderer that Absol has had a change of heart, Wanderer still finds it within itself to FORCE PALM Absol in the forehead, but knows that it'll build its trust to the Disaster Pokémon alongside Xeno in time.

A few days passed where all fifteen Pokémon in this group—Absol, "Aqua" Lapras, Beldum, Charmeleon, Dusknoir, Lairon, Latias, Latios, Luxray, Sceptile, Torchic, "Terra" Garchomp, Tyranitar, "Wanderer" Lucario, and "Xeno" Lucario—resided on Mirage island. During that time, they discussed with the Pokémon that they liberated where they lived or now desired to live, and where to go firstly from here. And before leaving, a funeral for Tiny Riolu was held, with Absol showing proficiency in speaking for its death, intertwining its experiences and relationship with Tiny alongside Tiny's own experiences and life story. In doing so, it earned the trust of both Sceptile and Xeno, cementing its place amongst Xeno's party. Afterwards, both Latias and Latios decided to take their leave, saying vaguely that they'll return when they're needed.

The cargo helicopter departed from Mirage Island altogether, and began dropping off the liberated Pokémon in their familiar or new locations, training them as well so that their chances of recapture were slim. The time it took to complete the final phase of Team Liberator's plan was just over eight-and-a-half years. And during that time as everybody grew more experienced, both Lairon and Charmeleon evolved into an Aggron and a Charizard, while both Torchic and Beldum evolved into a Combusken and a Metang.

But once the final phase of Team Liberator was completed and the name itself was disbanded, Xeno's party of Pokémon was left wondering what to do next. Thankfully, Wanderer Lucario still recalled the prophecy at Spear Pillar that it has yet to fully analyze, and everybody was in agreement to fly over to Mt. Coronet to learn of it.

Once at Mt. Coronet, Xeno alone navigated through the frigid height of the mountains, with his battle armor over his body, alongside Sceptile's buster sword and the used Poké Balls of his twelve colleagues. When Xeno reached the summit, he released everybody from their Poké Balls and they proceeded inside Spear Pillar. Once inside, Wanderer quickly found the broken pillar with the prophecy on it. And once it was puzzled back together with telekinetic abilities, both Wanderer and Xeno deciphered it, only to find that it related to Xeno in its entirety.

But before any one of them could make sense of the prophecy, Giovanni entered the scene and returned Xeno back into his "Team Rocket's Poké Ball" before making his armor-clad presence known to Xeno's colleagues. Thankfully, Xeno managed to not only break free of his Poke Ball, but snatched it from Giovanni's hands and added it to those of his own colleagues. Both Giovanni and Xeno's colleagues prepare to battle, only to have both Dialga and Palkia appear before them through their respective dimensions.

Giovanni, going on the offensive against the two of them with the idea of assimilating their great power, was quickly sent skyward by Palkia's DRAGON TAIL attack. Dialga then promptly froze Xeno's friends in time, and the both of them told the "Pokémon of Prophecy" that they've been expecting him. Xeno, because they paralyzed his friends in time, goes on the offensive against them, only to be quickly knocked unconscious from a bite would that Dialga inflicted upon him.

Giratina joins the situation and combines its power of dimensional transport alongside Dialga's temporal abilities and Palkia's spacial warping. In the process, they send Xeno Lucario into a remote village on a parallel Earth, set to the time of December 1st, 59 A.D.

Once Xeno crash landed onto this new location, all of the villagers quickly surrounded him and attempted to make sense of this unusual being, the village chiefs Costas and Ian included upon the people's request.

Xeno eventually woke up amongst these people and the pain of his injury overwhelmed him. Both Costas and Ian tell him that they can help treat him, and Xeno chooses to set aside his distrust over people and accepts their offer.

Once within the underground laboratory, Ian begins to treat Xeno's injuries, while Costas ogles the equipment that Xeno brought alongside him. When Ian finishes treating the worst of Xeno's injuries, the Aura Pokémon says thank you to Ian and Ian responds back without astonishment over the fact that he's capable of speech. Costas retrieves some medicine for Xeno and he gives his thanks as well, earning the surprise of speech that he expected from a human. Xeno then tells them a bit about his origin and the three of them introduce themselves formally, only Xeno doesn't say his name because he hasn't developed enough trust to them yet, although he does decide to reside here until his injuries fully heal.

Xeno briefly explores the laboratory until he decides to rest for a bit within the Prison Cell Room. Within there, he notices a dust drawing on the floor, describing a silhouette within a dream that Eduardo had over a decade ago, over a figure that he saw standing up against a Roman invasion. Xeno simply ponders that it was drawn over boredom and pays no more attention to it.

Over a week passes as Xeno inhabits the village that he was transported to. During that time, his injuries have fully healed, and he ponders about the three deity Pokémon—Dialga, Giratina, and Palkia—that sent him here. He can't figure out what they know that he doesn't, which includes their knowledge of the prophecy and why he was sent here in the first place. All he knows is that he's supposed to prevent the world from falling into the Void of the Dark One.

From the horizon, Xeno notices an impending Roman legion, and the villages standing by to impede their process. He listens on from a distance, wondering what the commotion is about. From a distance he hears the Roman General—Mars—discuss with Costas and Ian how the Roman Emperor sees this village as a stain and an embarrassment to his expanding empire, one that must be removed as swiftly and as absolutely as possible, now more than ever because Eduardo is no longer here as the village's bulwark. Xeno proceeds over to the commotion when he's heard enough to sense something hostile.

Mars prepares himself and his legion to mow down all of the villagers, and tells them if they have any last words. Both Ian and Costas do, and they pour their hearts out before their enemies. They say how it was wrong, of the villagers that they lead over, to have driven out the only person who can protect this village from the "Veni Vidi Vici" concept of Rome. Within the throng of villagers, Xeno ponders over this "Eduardo" person that they keep mentioning.

Mars notices Xeno from the mix of villagers and demands his presence up front. They comply and step back from Xeno's presence, letting Mars attempt to make sense of his alien, external appearance. Xeno notices this man staring at him and becomes mildly irritated by his interest in him.

Mars attempts to call Xeno over to his side with a downgrading, authoritative tone of voice that a man gives to their pet dog, and Xeno responds to that rudely and immediately, making the fact known that he can speak. And as Mars is seething over his blunt remark, Xeno makes known his opinion on the whole of human nature, down to the last negative detail.

However, he also says that he's recently learned that not every human is a bane on the world, using the selfless deeds of Costas and Ian as his example. Xeno mentions that these gallant people are selflessly helpful, and are eternally targeted by power-hungry warmongers, by imbeciles with overinflated egos and hyperactive drives of materialistic greatness.

Xeno faces Eduardo's brothers and thanks them for their actions to him earlier, and says that even though they never expected a repayment for their actions, he's going to give them one. Mars realizes this in the form of Xeno deciding to combat his entire legion of battle-ready soldiers, and he can't help but cackle at the ludicrous matter. However, Costas and Ian see this as nostalgic with Eduardo, and ponder if Xeno Lucario is just as powerful as him.

Mars challenges Xeno to clash with him, and Xeno gravely intimidates Mars's entire legion with a display of his aura power, before unleashing himself amongst them. Through a phenomenal display of Fire-Type and Ground-Type attacks, Xeno demolished Mars's legion, leaving the Roman General as the sole survivor.

Mars, rather than accepting his losses, spitefully charges towards Xeno with the thought of the Aura Pokémon's death flaring within his mind. He fights Xeno one-on-one, only to end up injuring himself in the process, with Xeno sustaining very little from Mars's rage. Having had enough of this, Xeno cast him into the Red Sea and then swept him along the currents with SURF, telling Mars his name in the process. And upon returning to the villagers, they greeted him as a hero.

The next day, when Xeno had all of his equipment on his person, including some food from both Costas and Ian, he tells them that he'll seek his way home by wandering the world for the answer. Both Costas and Ian tell him that he should seek Eduardo, the only person who has the greatest chance of fulfilling that desire.

They describe Eduardo to Xeno, highlighting his accomplishments and attributes. Xeno asks them why he was banished, and Eduardo's brothers say that the villagers feared him for his power, blind at the heroism that he did. They don't know his present location, but Xeno doesn't mind as he took his leave from the village.

Over a month passed as Xeno traveled across the world at speeds that greatly surpass those of people, searching for Eduardo's aura signature, believing it to be a beacon compared to the human norm.

He finds himself taking a lunch break on a Solitary Tree atop a Hill, moments before he hid behind the tree after sensing the presence of a malefic entity entering this location through a black rift in space, the hooded figure as it turned out to be. The hooded figure briefly soliloquized about how he despises all of nature—from the plants to the animals to the water to the sun—just before he sensed Xeno's presence from behind the tree.

Xeno is astonished at the fact that the hooded figure knows his name, as well as the fact that he can't read the hooded figure's mind. Xeno at first thinks that the hooded figure is Eduardo, only to have the hooded figure dissonantly deny it at the moment. Then, the hooded figure recalled Xeno's _entire_ life story, leaving Xeno discombobulated and curious as to where the hooded figure obtained his information.

The hooded figure also mentions that he's nameless, before saying that he's an emissary of the Dark One. Xeno quickly connects this person as a vital source of information to the prophecy that he knows he must fulfill. The hooded figure, after removing his hood from over his head, recalls this prophecy as well, and states how Xeno is merely an infant of his own power, one that is easier to defeat as the Dark One ordered him to.

Xeno braces himself to clash with the hooded figure, but could never prepare himself for the actions that the hooded figure initiated. The results of the hooded figure's actions left Xeno one-hundred lacerations of varying depths scattered across his body, which greatly debilitated him from the monumental loss of blood. However, Xeno still retaliated in the form of a DISCHARGE technique, which made contact with the hooded figure and roasted him to the third degree.

The hooded figure, despite his rage on the matter, decides that his injuries take priority over Xeno's death, and tells him that if Xeno survives this day, then he'll hunt him down at the earliest opportunity. The hooded figure disappears through a rift in space, and Xeno collapses under the severity of his own injuries.

He wakes up on the same day early evening—clean, fully healed from his injuries, and resting comfortable on a makeshift outdoor bed—wondering how he's still alive. He turns in bed to notice both Costas and Ian staring off at the Red Sea, discussing between each other how that body of water received its name.

They eventually notice Xeno out of bed and collapse under his temporary feebleness. They rush over to his aid and help him back to his bed and tell him that they weren't the ones that tended to his wounds. The person that did—Eduardo—was returning over here after an errand.

As soon as Eduardo landed before them after his errand, Xeno just ogled him unwaveringly, and then swiftly one-two punched him into unconsciousness. Both Costas and Ian showed great concern over this and asked him why he just attacked their brother. Xeno was about to say why, but the key word "brother" made him realize that the person he just struck down was Eduardo.

The headache that resulted from his confusion caused him to TELEPORT away from his location, over to a location a few hundred miles away. He dragged his feet at a snail's pace until the middle of the night, where he collapsed from the mental damage that his confusion hammered within his cerebrum, alongside the physical damage that he endured from the hooded figure, but has yet to fully recover his stamina from.

Once unconscious, the hooded figure appeared before Xeno's immobile state of body, and pondered how easy it would be to end him right here, right now. However, he's been given strict orders by the Dark One to not do so, because both Eduardo and Xeno are already beginning to connect as friends. He says that the two of them will become greater obstacles to fell, but that they're not the only ones that can grow stronger.

So rather than kill Xeno, he decides to make it harder for Eduardo's devices in locating him, and takes Xeno to a location that Eduardo hates the most within this world: Rome, Italy.

The next thing that Xeno knew, he awoke within an Empty Lot within the Roman capital, shackled and being failingly tortured by the Roman guards within the vicinity, under the authority of the Roman Emperor Nero. At one point, one of the guards grows frustrated with him and attempts to pry his eyes open long enough for an arrow to penetrate it, only to have Xeno brutally retaliate at him.

Nero then gets the idea that hot steel will fell this beast, and orders for a furnace to be constructed. And when the furnace is beginning to combust within, Nero places his Gladius sword within there until it is fully heated, and then retrieves it with the thought of spearing Xeno's throat in two. Xeno ponders how this might be the end of him, and also ponders how he's managed to get out of lethal situations such as this with his life intact. The reason he formulates being his goals in life that drive him through every day in his life. However, he doesn't see any hope of coming out of this situation alive.

Nero tells Xeno how the Aura Pokémon mysteriously arrived to his palace, unconscious, as well as how Mars told him of Xeno's identity, as well as some key details that Mars experienced through his battle with Xeno. Xeno reminds Nero of Eduardo, which resurfaces the painful headache that he had earlier. And with the thought of being remembered in history as the Fifth Roman Emperor that felled a great enemy of Rome, Nero thrust his sword at Xeno's neck.

Only to have Eduardo, in his dragon form, stand between the two of them and take the blow for him, directly through his abdomen.

Xeno, after accepting the fact that the dragon that saved him is Eduardo in a different state of body, realizes the type of person that I am: a person that fights for the safety of the people that he cares deeply for. And to indirectly prove that, Eduardo knocked Nero unconscious and then vaporized the Roman sentry surrounding the two of them, before they healed each other's wounds and fled from Rome, just before the hooded figure appeared before Nero when he regained consciousness.

_(Song Ends)_

* * *

_26.3: Intertwining Crossroads_

During the return trip back to Eduardo's brothers, both he and Xeno spent some of this time talking between each other. At one point, Xeno brought up the topic of my Elemental Aura abilities, and Eduardo pondered an answer to a question that was never asked to him before, alongside explaining what Elemental Aura is to him, how second nature it is to him, and how the idea that he's experienced these abilities before lingers within him.

Eduardo then says how he first thought of locating Xeno because their powers revolve around the same source of strength. Xeno denies the idea that our powers are similar, and Eduardo understands this, because Eduardo now believes that he's sealed his powers within himself, but doesn't know when or why.

Xeno then says that he originally thought of locating Eduardo because both Costas and Ian explained that he's the only person with acumen sharp enough to help with his dilemma. Eduardo just as similarly denies this, saying how multi-dimensional travel—which he now knows is possible after realizing that Xeno is from a parallel Earth in another dimension—is out of his field of reach. However, it isn't out of his field of potential in understanding, and he's willing to help Xeno find a way back home, as long as Xeno is willing to wait.

Xeno agrees to this, and apologizes for striking Eduardo earlier with zero warning, explaining that it was caused by some mental confusion that overwhelmed him. Eduardo's forgiveness was immediate, because he was pondering what bothered Xeno enough for him to choose to do so in the first place. Xeno is willing to explain to me what it is, and Eduardo tells him to wait until we regroup with Costas and Ian.

Setting that topic aside, Eduardo says that neither of them have properly introduced themselves to each other. Xeno begins by saying "_Xeno Lucario, Aura Pokémon of Prophecy_" and Eduardo follow suit by saying "**Eduardo, Man of Bulwark**". And after that, the two of them decide to not keep Costas and Ian waiting and fly over there at Mach 3.

* * *

Within the Unova region's Castelia City, Mewtwo stood on top of one of the tallest skyscrapers of the city. It looked down at the activity below, absorbing information about its surrounding like a sponge, as it has been doing so about topics of its interest for a considerable amount of time.

Mewtwo, out of boredom, then decides to recollect its entire life, from the moment of its "birth" within the laboratory to today, and everything in between. Then, it ponders locating its old colleague Xeno Lucario, albeit with doubts in doing so because of the goal it once had that never came into obvious fruition, and it would return to Xeno as a defeatist. However, Mewtwo also ponders that Xeno has spent his time looking for it.

However, Mewtwo doesn't see this as the best use of his time, and ponders that Xeno instead conducted his "Team Liberator" initiative to completion, and then train the Pokémon that he freed from Team Rocket. Mewtwo even calculated a gross estimate of time that it would take Xeno and his colleagues to accomplish their selfless ambition—just over eight-and-a-half years—and what date that they'd finish their mission—yesterday. And after Team Liberator's goals were realized, Xeno's colleagues would likely do something else, which Mewtwo ponders to be the prophecy that Wanderer Lucario mentioned resides within Mt. Coronet's Spear Pillar, one which Mewtwo and Wanderer ran out of time in accessing that area when they were both in Mt. Coronet during a capture mission.

Mewtwo ponders intercepting them at Spear Pillar, only to be intercepted _itself_ by two hand-shaped entities by the name of Crazy Hand and Master Hand. They explain their reasons for residing before Mewtwo: to invite the Genetic Pokémon to a tournament of that is held on another planet, light-years away from this one, of highly-skilled fighters that encompass various corners of the universe.

Mewtwo finds the new information tempting, but distrusts the sources of it, mostly because it smells vaguely familiar to Giovanni's proposition to it years before. Master Hand identifies that detail, much to Mewtwo's surprise, and tell it that they've been observing its key events in life, under its radar with their psychic abilities buffering Mewtwo's extrasensory perception. Mewtwo respectfully declines the offer, even after they beg it to reconsider.

Before Mewtwo leaves however, both Latias and Latios intercept it, telling it that it is destiny for it to accept their offer. Mewtwo asks for a more specific response, which leads to the Eon Pokémon Duo to tell it of a looming crisis, one that it already being planned to be counteracted by Xeno and his party of Pokémon, and one that Mewtwo is needed in whether it be willingly or reluctantly.

Mewtwo asks both the Eon Pokémon Duo and Hand Duo for the identity of their leader. And from their uneasy responses, Mewtwo hypothesizes it to be Arceus, the Original One, stating that the crisis is great enough for the Alpha Pokémon's intervention. Because of this realization, Mewtwo decides to go with Master Hand and Crazy Hand and enter this tournament of theirs.

Before their leave however, both Latias and Latios introduce Mewtwo to a companion during this adventure, someone who's indirectly been in the Hand Duo's _first_ tournament and understands its workings, and has a strong history with the genetic Pokémon.

The identity of that Pokémon is Mew, who immediately appears before Mewtwo's face with a charming personality and a pledge to become good friends, which Mewtwo reluctantly accepts.

Setting this aside, Mewtwo asks the Eon Pokémon Duo where Xeno and his party of Pokémon fall under this greater scheme of things. They assure him that Arceus has them covered, and if everything goes well, then they'll reunite in time. And with that, Crazy Hand, Master Hand, Mew, and Mewtwo take their leave upward and across the cosmos, leaving both Latias and Latios to ponder entering that tournament themselves.

* * *

Within Mt. Coronet's Spear Pillar, after sending Xeno into a parallel Earth to begin to fulfill his destiny, the Deity Pokémon of the Sinnoh Region reset Xeno's party back into normal time. And despite the spite that Xeno's colleagues expressed towards Dialga, Giratina, and Palkia, the three of them explained their reasoning for freezing them in time, which was to send Xeno away without any interference. They explained how they did so, and how Dialga received an injury from Xeno in the process. Xeno's colleagues feel the need to fight back at them, but they are told that there's no need for that.

Giratina then uses PSYCHIC on the fragmented pillar, bringing it in front of Wanderer and repairing it so that Wanderer could read it to its colleagues. Wanderer did so, and everybody understood that it was referring to Xeno, because no other Pokémon met its criteria. Giratina set the pillar aside, saying that the three of them merely guided Xeno towards its "Path of the Aura", to a parallel Earth where the Void of the Dark One will originate.

However, Tyranitar asks why the rest of them weren't sent alongside Xeno, and Giratina bluntly responds by saying how they're presently _less_ than Magikarp against the Dark One. Metang asks if the three of them would fare any better, and they all state that they wouldn't, mostly because the Dark One is an entity they don't fully understand, according to Arceus's description of Him. However, Arceus might've told them that in order to protect them, alongside Itself, because if Arceus perishes, then eventually so will the entire Pokémon race.

The main hope against this looming crisis is in the form of Xeno Lucario, the Pokémon of Prophecy, who they say is still infantile in terms of strength. However, Xeno's colleagues are also able to support him, because Xeno has unconsciously unlocked the limits of sixteen Pokémon that he holds closely to his heart. Xeno's party of Pokémon immediately recognize themselves as twelve of these sixteen Pokémon and then figure out the identities of the other four: Latias, Latios, Mewtwo, and Tiny Riolu—even though the last Pokémon on the list has long since died.

With that sorted out, Giratina explains how Arceus has a task for them to accomplish, to prove that they have been unlocked by the Pokémon of Prophecy and deserve to support him on the crisis at hand. They explain Arceus's sixteen elemental plates, before saying that Xeno's colleagues should go hunt down all of them, scattered across the Sinnoh region. The locations of each of them are described on sixteen of the pillars within Spear Pillar.

All of Xeno's colleagues accept this honor, and the three Deity Pokémon of the Sinnoh Region take their respective leave, leaving Wanderer as the second-in-command to decipher the pillars' inscriptions and decide where to go from there.

* * *

Within the Throne Room of the Roman Emperor's palace, both Nero and the hooded figure—his face exposed before the leader of the Roman Empire—discussed what to do to dispose of both Eduardo and Xeno Lucario, two of the greatest threats against Nero's ambition of global conquest.

After striking down a few failed ideas from Nero's part, the hooded figure had a suggestion in mind. He proposes matching their power with equal power, with soldiers that possess the same type of power that both Eduardo and Xeno utilize. And in order to set this project in motion, the hooded figure requests thirteen of the finest military minds that Rome has to offer, preferably fresh and malleable minds from the Military School within Rome. He also suggests that one of these thirteen soldiers should already be a veteran Roman General, to act as the leader of this strike force.

Nero, content with the idea, agreed to the hooded figure's request. And before the hooded figure could make his leave, Nero asked for his name. The hooded figure doesn't have a name, and stated a purpose instead, to see both Eduardo and Xeno Lucario perish in hellfire after being sent to the source. After that, Nero dismissed him and pondered how history will view this legendary achievement of his if it comes to fruition.

The hooded figure, as he strolled across Rome's bustling streets, pondered how much easier it is to manipulate Nero than his predecessor Claudius—not needing more _decisive_ methods in order to have his way—in order to set the Dark One's master plan in motion.

* * *

_Brothers In Arms/Halo Original Soundtrack/Martin O'Donnell & Michael Salvatori_

_(Song Begins)_

At the point where both Costas and Ian were beginning to worry about Xeno's fate, they notice Eduardo—still within his dragon form—flying across the sky and returning before them. Eduardo lands before them after flying at Mach 3, and is immediately asked for the presence of Xeno Lucario, because they couldn't see him anywhere on Eduardo's scaly body. And it wasn't until Eduardo dropped on all fours that they notched Xeno clinging onto Eduardo's scaly hide for dear life. Thankfully, after sliding off of Eduardo, due to an earlier adrenaline high, Xeno gets back up on his feet just before Costas and Ian hugged him, and then Eduardo embraced the three of them within his massive arms.

Afterwards, a much needed unwinding of unanswered questions was in order. To start with, Eduardo asked Xeno how he received his serious injuries. Xeno mentions that his injuries were inflicted by a man in a black coat, whom his listeners pinpoint from their experiences with him as the hooded figure. Xeno then continues by saying that the hooded figure works under the authority of the Dark One, the name itself ringing no bells this time amongst his listeners.

Xeno mentions that the hooded figure told him of what the Dark One sees of him, as a liable threat to His plans of global conquest. This is taken as fact because both the Dark One and the hooded figure know of Xeno's achievements. Xeno knows that—despite their unknown strength or their hidden agenda—he's destined to counteract them, according to Spear Pillar's prophecy that he recalls before us. However, at Xeno's and Eduardo's present strength, they're likely outmatched by the hooded figure, and virtually powerless against the Dark One.

Thankfully, Eduardo suggests that the best course of action against this is to strengthen themselves beyond their present potential, in order to combat the "Void of the Dark One" before it is too late. Xeno acknowledges this plan of action, and says that both Costas and Ian—because of the great amount of aura that he senses emanating from them—are in this alongside them, after he teaches them in utilizing aura.

Lastly, before any ideas on training are pondered, Xeno has one last topic that he needs Eduardo to know about: the _facial_ identity of the hooded figure. Eduardo asks for as much detail on the matter as possible, but Xeno knows that five words will suffice. Eduardo says that he's ready for this information, and Xeno says that he isn't.

"_He looks…just like you_" are the only five words that Xeno Lucario mentions on the critical subject, leaving Eduardo's body numb after hearing the truth.

_(Song Ends)_

* * *

"Because in the pages of this book, you and I will meet one-on-one, my mind and yours, and you will enter a world of my making and dwell there, not as a character that I control, but as a person with a mind of your own. You will make of my story what you need it to be, if you can. I hope my tale is true enough and flexible enough that you can make it into a world worth living in." —Orson Scott Card ("_Speaker for the Dead_") (xxii)

* * *

And there you have it, "_The Path of the Aura: Intertwining Crossroads_" in a condensed, streamlined nutshell. And when I wrote this before beginning "The Path of the Aura II: Brothers in Arms", I fully realized just how high I've set the bar for myself, how large my first story is, how well written I made it, and how I'll try my hardest to supersede myself from there.

I have no pressure.


	2. Chapter XIX (19)

And here it is, the first chapter of "The Path of the Aura II: Brothers in Arms", the sequel FanFic that I had promised to have uploaded and ready on this website on the date I had specified.

But before I take my temporary leave from this metaphorical stage and let you enjoy this chapter to its fullest, I just have some topics to say firstly, to make sure you know what type of author I am, and what my preferred writing style is.

To those who already know how I write and what I enjoy including, then this will only come as a review for you.

1. I take writing FanFiction _very_ seriously, so you'll likely notice a more sophisticated, sometimes liberal scheme in my writing. My exact writing tactics, such as how I display a character's thoughts or speech, are mentioned in the "Afterword" chapter of "_The Path of the Aura: Intertwining Crossroads_".

2. I have a deep love of inserting, referencing, and using songs within (almost) all of my chapters. I list these songs through three categories, all of them accurately, based on how I have them listed on my hard drive: song title/song album/and song artist.

3. At the end of ALL of my chapters, I list an end quote that I feel best summarizes the overall theme of each chapter. Most of them come from the best-selling books from Orson Scott Card's Ender series (I'm a big fan of those books if you didn't already know).

4. My profile page contains information not on _myself_, but of my growing FanFic series. When you access it, you'll be able to see the table of contents section (which contains the end quotes used, the songs utilized, and most importantly the YouTube links to the songs that I've listed, which I recommend taking a look at because most of the music is powerful, emotional, or suited to the mood that I'm attempting to convey). You'll also see detailed information on Eduardo's "S-Rank" inventions, Xeno Lucario's abilities and Pokémon Techniques, Elemental Aura, etc. Much of it is updated after each new chapter addition, so it pays to take a look at it, particularly the songs that I decided to use.

5. Before I'm told otherwise on this, "_The Path of the Aura II: Brothers in Arms_" is a direct sequel to "_The Path of the Aura: Intertwining Crossroads_". Because of this, my chapter order follows where my first FanFic left off. THIS chapter is technically my _27th_ chapter written, though it's listed as "Chapter XIX (19)", because of the first six "Prologue" chapters to my first FanFic, the "Afterword" chapter ending my first FanFic, and the "Recap Prologue" chapter before this chapter.

That's all I have to say, and I'll be taking my leave for now, until you scroll down at the end where I'll leave my final thoughts.

* * *

**Chapter XIX (19): Aura vs. Bulwark (Part I (1))**

Location: ?

Date: ?

Time: ?

_The 13th Floor/Kingdom Hearts Original Soundtrack Complete - CD7 - Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories OST/Yoko Shimomura_

_(Song Begins)_

"_I have a question for you._"

"What is it?"

"_Have you ever wondered who would win in a one-on-one clash between Eduardo and Xeno Lucario? Just a battle in general, doesn't matter if it's a friendly sparring match or a full-force brawl._"

"Hmm… Now that you mention it, I've _always_ wondered who would win between the two, but I've never pondered their exact strengths and weaknesses in detail, and then take their martial potential into account to see who it is that would emerge victorious over the other."

"_Why don't we do so _now_ then? You can start._"

"Alright. Well, let's see… Lucario has—quite _literally_—an all-star's repertoire of Pokémon techniques, _dozens_ of them under its belt. The vast majority of them are either very powerful or highly useful…"

"_No surprise there, coming from the Aura Pokémon of Prophecy._"

"It also has a wide collection of aura-based abilities…"

"_That gives Xeno the ability to see the aura around it, alongside manipulating it in a variety of various techniques, for offensive and/or defensive combat._"

"And it also has a collection of various other miscellaneous abilities…"

"_Xeno is capable of teleportation, duplication, telekinesis, mind-reading, etc. And most importantly, Xeno has the ability to inadvertently break the limits of Pokémon that it has developed a bond with._"

"All of this supplied with great martial experience acquired through a handful of hardships that the Pokémon of Prophecy has had to either endure or transcend."

"_Very good. You certainly have done your research on Xeno Lucario._"

"Thank you. After all, it wouldn't be right in my part if I didn't."

"_Now it's _My_ turn to describe Eduardo's martial potential._"

"Explain away. I'm all ears at the moment."

"_Eduardo possesses aura-based abilities that allow him to channel individual properties, based on the color that his aura emanates at any given moment._"

"Self-named 'Elemental Aura', if memory serves."

"_Yes, correct. He's also capable of physical transmogrification._"

"He just discovered that ability within himself, and he can only become a white-scaled dragon through it. A very _powerful_ dragon though…"

"_He_ _possesses a brilliant acumen that would put the mind of an Alakazam to shame…_"

"That he does, to _two _Alakazam, actually."

"…_Which he uses to its fullest in the manufacturing of unbelievably intricate and multipurpose technology._"

"Coincidentally, the majority of his self-named 'S-Rank' inventions look like technology that Pokémon Trainers would use in their travels."

"_An uncanny coincidence nevertheless… And alongside that, Eduardo has developed an unbelievable endurance._"

"In his shoes, that's vital for some of the conflicts he's gotten himself into."

"_And to top it all off, he has great adaptability in combat._"

"If some aspect of his fails him during combat, he always has something else that will prove to be just as effective instead."

"_However, that's all their positive attributes, and we haven't discussed their weaknesses._"

"Right, because everything has a weakness, regardless of their strength or wisdom in battle."

"_Exactly. And what weaknesses do you see in Xeno's quintessence?_"

"Well, let's see. If you compare the concrete aura-based abilities between both Eduardo and Lucario, as bizarre as it might seem and as _unbelievable_ as it is to me, _Eduardo's_ proves to be much greater than Lucario's."

"_Yes, but that's _only_ in terms of aura. Because when it comes to their move set as a whole, meaning looking past the set genre of aura and viewing what _else_ they know, Xeno's move pool is far more diverse than Eduardo's._"

"Yes, but nevertheless, they both are capable of brandishing the power of the elements through their attacks."

"_You're absolutely right. They can both wield fire, water, ice, electricity, wind, earth, light, and darkness, the ones that easily come to mind._"

"Of course they can, the Pokémon of Prophecy in the form of the known Pokémon Type Attributes, and Eduardo through his Elemental Aura abilities."

"_And while Eduardo might exploit that weakness if he and Xeno inevitably collide in battle, there's a weakness in Eduardo's part that Xeno can exploit if it ever identifies it._"

"And what would that be?"

"_Combat experience._"

"…Ah, You're absolutely right, once you take in the age when they both first started to understand their powers."

"_Precisely, because at what age did Eduardo first learn how to fight?_"

"I believe it was his early teens, but he didn't _truly_ come to begin to understand his potential until he turned sixteen years of age, when he used his Elemental Aura abilities to defend against a Roman legion that threatened to decimate his home village."

"_Correct. And at what age did Xeno first learn how to fight?_"

"Just about at birth actually, when it first encountered…that vindictive, genocidal Absol, whom I'm honestly surprised had that change of heart under Latias's doing."

"_And because of that, in terms of combat experience, Xeno is not only over _sixteen years_ more knowledgeable in fighting than Eduardo, but it has also been needing to fight for most of its life, whereas Eduardo has needed to in only a handful of key moments in his life._"

"Are there any other weaknesses that You see amongst the two of them?"

"_Just one…and it's a fairly decisive one if it isn't corrected in Eduardo's part._"

"What is it?"

"_When it comes to_ _friendship, Eduardo values his closeness with those that he cares about heavily, just as much as Xeno Lucario does. However, he carries that friendship too often, and it can prove to be _gravely_ encumbering when it comes to martial combat._"

"…I see where You're going with this."

"_That's good to know, because you see the key fault behind Eduardo's abilities in battle._"

"I do. I see that Eduardo doesn't know how to temporarily _relinquish_ his bond with his friends so that he can train alongside them in order to get stronger."

"_And with the antagonistic forces at work in the form of the Dark One and His personal emissary in the black cloak, Eduardo's personal hindrance could prove disastrous in the long run._"

"I see… Can this be turned around?"

"_It must be, and Xeno_ _Lucario is the key that will remove the lock on Eduardo's deliberate suppression in battle. All it'll take in its part is a clash with Eduardo, where Xeno forces Eduardo to strike at it offensively and help him grow accustomed to the idea of letting friendship pacifism go during battle. Only then will the four of them grow stronger as a whole, and prove to be a formidable resistance against the Void of the Dark One._"

"And when that happens, who would win in a battle between the Man of Bulwark and the Pokémon of Prophecy?"

"_I haven't the slightest idea. All that I know is that their strengths balance out their weaknesses, and they're both powerful enough to push each other past their normal threshold, without the risk of severely injuring each other as long as they're both on their guard. They both basically have an equal potential of acquiring victory or defeat against each other._"

"In short, should we just watch on from our perches at their inevitable collision and see what happens between the two of them?"

"_Of course._"

"Would You like a snack or something? I can go make some popcorn for the two of us to eat when Eduardo and Xeno fight."

"_…_"

"…?"

"_…I don't have a mouth, remember?_"

"…Oh, right... Never mind..."

_(Song Ends)_

* * *

_27.1: Understanding the Man behind the Countenance_

Location: 28°N, 34°E (Solitary Tree atop a Hill)

Date: January 11th, 60 A.D.

Time: 1:40 PM

A fair amount of time has passed since Xeno Lucario muttered those cryptic five words that have entirely and eternally changed my viewpoint on the hooded figure—a mysterious man, clad in a shrouding black cloak who has been under the superiority of the _equally_ mysterious "The Dark One".

"_He looks…just like you._" Xeno spoke telepathically to me almost an hour ago.

Strangely enough, he was definitely right about one key fact of this topic. Even though I told him to describe the facial countenance of the hooded figure in as much detail as possible, he could do so equally with as relatively few words as possible. I wanted him to describe each and every aspect about the facial anatomy of the hooded figure—which would include eye color, hair color, nose structure, skin tone, lower jaw bone structure, etc—in what would've easily encompassed about a few hundred, or even a thousand words in the Aura Pokémon's part.

However, with just five words, _five_ words in an order so perfectly organized that, once detected by my reptilian inner ears, managed to reverberate across my very mind, and spoken in a manner so serious and so sincere that my very body—my present _draconic_ body—grew nervously insensitive from the verbal anesthetic that took the form of telepathic speech.

Because of that, I spent almost an hour lying dorsally recumbent on the grassy hillside that the four of us—Costas, Ian, Xeno, and I—were presently inhabiting, pondering this essential bit of information and what it could mean to me. And during that time, I failed to notice what my brothers and my Pokémon comrade were doing to pass the time.

Both Costas and Ian, because of their earlier conversation as to how the Red Sea got its name and what causes the massive body of water to change its color—in the form of an undersea foliage by the name of Trichodesmium Erythraeum, whose blooms die off and produce that famous reddish-brown oceanic hue—, decided to swim down as far as they were physically capable of, in order to see this particular species of algae first-hand.

As for Xeno, he simply climbed to the top of the massive Berry tree that I had planted here almost a decade ago. Once at the top of the tree, he formed a handstand, with only his left paw holding onto the apex of the tree, and meditated against the swaying motions that the wind was inflicting upon the precarious peak. With great concentration, Xeno found it easy to perform this amazing physical feat and retain his balance, and simply attempted to hold this posture for as long as he was capable of.

So, as they were passing the time in their own preferred way, I was passing the time in _my_ own preferred way, chosen by Xeno when he cemented "_He looks just like you_" into my five-digit I.Q. cerebrum. I was pondering over the hooded figure, and attempting to understand the man behind the countenance.

_Adagio in G Minor for Strings and Organ, "Albinoni's Adagio"/The 50 Greatest Pieces of Classical Music/London Philharmonic Orchestra & David Parry_

_(Song Begins)_

"(The odds for any two human beings to share the same exact physical appearance, without any demarcation between the two, are virtually nonexistent, because in short, it is an absolute impossibility in the part of the human race.)"

I moved my massive draconic hulk very little during this deep mental understanding. At most, I only blinked, inhaled, exhaled, and twitched a broad wing or lengthy tail, and did nothing else physically. My massive, ash-black eyes were focused at the blue sky, but were not in use at the moment, because I was deep in thought and uncaring over my external environment.

"(The only natural method that humanity can conceive this impressive feat of physical duplication is if the mother gave birth to twins. But I know that that was never the case with _my_ own mother—God rest her soul, alongside that of my father. I know this because I was in immediate understanding of my surroundings by the time I had emerged into the open world. I know that I was held in their arms shortly after my birth, and I never saw anything or know of anything that would even _remotely_ resemble a brotherly twin, a mirror image of my own physical reality.)"

I briefly looked up to see Xeno meditating upside-down on the highest point of the Berry tree, and then looked back at the sky as I continued to think.

"(Not that I would classify the hooded figure as my…_brother_.)" I felt my scaly countenance briefly scowl and every one of my scales shudder at the thought of being _related_ to the hooded figure. "(I would _never_ think of him as such! Especially not after the atrocious condition that he left Xeno in when I first encountered the Aura Pokémon. That enigmatic entity came close to killing him, just to note how powerful he has become to both himself and this 'Dark One' being.)"

I returned back to the train of thought that I had allowed to steer off course when my personal feelings influenced my judgment.

"(So then, because of that fact, I can safely assume that the hooded figure is _inhuman_, just as much as I have come to realize of myself…)"

I took a momentary pause to feel the existence of my physical body, from the zenith of my scaly snout, to the nadir of my rough feet, stretching the physical structures in the middle of both in the process, especially when I felt myself stiffen slightly from a lack of movement.

"(…what with my Elemental Aura abilities, my preposterously remarkable sagacity, and my recently-acquired ability to become this monstrous white-scaled dragon—with a tone of voice that seemed specially chosen to inflict the most amount of pants-soiling _dread_ to whomsoever is within earshot of me. Because of these attributes that I've unearthed within myself, I find myself to be less and less human, in terms of normality.)"

I opened my massive mouth wide open to yawn once in a low growl, exposing dozens of razor-sharp, serrated, six-inch long teeth that lined my reptilian mandible and maxillary bones.

"(Of course, I should probably be surprised at the fact that the hooded figure isn't necessarily human either. After all, with the powers that we both brandish, we're better categorized as 'superhuman' or 'supernatural' by the norm, 'godly' by the reverential, and 'demonic' by the apprehensive.)"

Thinking that I had pondered the necessary information on this topic, I branched out onto another similar topic.

"(And because of that, even though I don't know how _exactly_ the hooded figure has flawlessly emulated my physical features, I should know the realm of possibilities that this opens up for him. The most likely possibility that the hooded figure could abuse is the fact that he looks _exactly_ like me.)"

Within my mind, I began to dive deeper into this topic.

"(And if he looks _exactly_ like me, then other people who catch a glimpse of his face—assuming the hooded figure openly travels the public world—will mistake him for me. And if he so much as _contemplates_ vilifying my image, then he could very well have the entire _world_ hunt me down. Not just Rome, as I've already done to myself when I defended my home village against Mercury's…I mean, _Prattlecus's_ Roman invasion. If the hooded figure ever did that, then I would be hunted down mercilessly, and perhaps my brothers and Xeno alongside me as well.)"

And then, as I pondered this topic, I realized something else.

"(Of course, if tarnishing my image was in his plans—or to be more specific, those of his 'Dark One' superior—, then he would've done so already. He would've made my name mud and had anybody feeling brave enough to rally immense throngs of people tireless pursue me, with the sole purpose of seeing me wiped clean off of the face of this earth, with my brothers and Xeno dragged down with me. And yet…both Xeno and I, with our great power, would wipe _them_ out instead, no matter their numbers over us. But in doing so, we would only make the majority of the human population hate us even more.)"

With that idea seeming less and less likely, I pondered what the Dark One's motives are, through the actions that the hooded figure has already enacted in the past, that both Xeno and I have been a part of.

"(Of course, I know now that that isn't what the Dark One has planned, especially if He has global domination in mind. Because, according to Xeno's earlier explanation of his encounter with the hooded figure, the Dark One would rather have the 'Pokémon of Prophecy' dead, because it poses to be a viable threat to His malevolent ambition. And because Xeno's powers are in many ways similar to my own, I'm just as much in jeopardy as Xeno is…or so I think.)"

Seeing this topic being more rock-solid in terms of anticipating the motives behind the antagonistic forces at work underneath our radar, I continued to speculate, for any flaws with their recent actions, or logical reasons behind them.

"(But if that's the case, then why didn't the hooded figure just kill Xeno _outright_, especially if the Dark One sees it as a possible deterrent to His goals of world domination? He was _more_ than capable of doing that task, and could've ended its life _long_ before I had identified Xeno's exact coordinates.)"

I could feel my massive heart pound harder when I realized another possibility in this matter.

"(And it's not _just_ Xeno that the hooded figure has the potential to kill, but…_me_ as well. But rather than do _either_, he didn't, because it was against his master's orders.)"

All of my speculation to this point just left me with predictably unanswered questions that only time will reveal to me.

"(The Dark One—the hooded figure's Superior—wishes for Xeno Lucario and I to remain alive, inadvertently giving us the chance of growing stronger in order to stand a chance in fulfilling that prophecy against Him, against the 'Void of the Dark One'. The only questions I have on the matter are these: Why? What specific reasons does _He_ have in wishing for Xeno and me to remain alive? What _plans_ does He, and His hooded figure subordinate, have in store for us that I've yet to anticipate?)"

_(Song Fades and Ends)_

Xeno Lucario, having been sensing the mental activity that I've been emanating as he was meditating, launched himself off of the top of his perch and descended back down onto the earth, somersaulting a few times in mid-air before landing on all four paws and then standing upright and bipedal again.

He approached me from above my head, and when I noticed his presence, I looked up to see him.

"_The hooded figure is _still_ on your mind?_" Xeno looked down at my head.

I nod at his assumption, knowing that he was right. "**After you've told me such decisive information about the hooded figure, I can't take my mind off of what options that could present for him, and how he came to acquire and resemble my identity in the first place.**"

"_I know._" Xeno told me. "_I've been reading your mind and analyzing everything you just pondered on the subject._"

The fact that Xeno has the ability to read minds is impressive in my perspective, and I didn't hold against him the fact that he invaded my thoughts without my knowing. Instead, I simply continued to speak to him as I already was.

"**So you understand the questions this raises up for me then?**"

"_More or less,_" Xeno stated truthfully. "_If anything, I know you're already absorbing the information better than _I_ was when I first realized that the hooded figure looks exactly like you._"

I could feel a lingering dullness of pain emanate from the left side of my face when I recalled how, in Xeno's sheer confusion on the topic, raked the left side of my face with his METAL CLAWs, delivered an uppercut to my chin, and then warped away from my location altogether.

"**That's true,**" I stated. "**But, I will admit, after you told me of the countenance of the hooded figure, I felt an almost **_**overwhelming**_** drive to bash my head against that Berry tree that you were just meditating on. And I don't mean **_**just**_** slamming my head into its trunk, but literally **_**uproot**_** it with my bare hands—I mean…claws—and drive it down onto my head as if it were a hammer.**"

Xeno briefly imagined that unorthodox sight and then shook it aside. "_Well then…at least you have more self-control than I do, for you to handle this topic better than me._"

"**Self control…**"

Those two muttered words echoed within my mind, causing me to recall key memories of using my power, such as when I first acquired my Elemental Aura abilities and first discovered my capability of transforming into this draconic hulk, and how it didn't run amok and target something else that I never intended to target.

"**…You're probably right about that.**"

Xeno nodded in agreement of my response, and then decided that it was appropriate to change the topic.

"_Pondering over the malevolent forces at work under our noses won't do us any good if we aren't braced for them,_" Xeno began. "_We should start to strengthen ourselves, make ourselves ready against their next move._"

"**What did you have in mind?**" I said, almost unnecessarily since I was already anticipating where this was going.

Xeno smiled eagerly as he continued. "_I recommend that we have a sparring match, one-on-one, in order to see each other's martial abilities first-hand, and get an idea as to where we both presently stand._"

After hearing his idea, I rolled over onto my broad, scaly underbelly in order to get my four feet placed firmly onto the earth. Then, I hoisted my fifteen-foot-long body back upright, bipedal and looking down at Xeno, whom never kept his eyes off of me, even though now I tower over him by almost three times his respective height.

"**I don't need to read your mind to know that you're saying that as an excuse to see what I'm capable of.**" I sensed Xeno's motives through his words, but responded to it nonchalantly nevertheless—or at least as nonchalantly as I could apply to my demonically deep tone of voice.** "Am I right?**"

Xeno simply shrugged his shoulders, unaffected in the least at my hypothesis. "_Just about, actually. I want to see your strength first-hand._"

"**I see…**" I drone at his martial fervor. "**Although, before I spar with you, it would be wise in my part to revert back to normal first. I wouldn't want to run the risk of crushing you in this present state of body.**"

Xeno simply dropped his eyebrows at my claim, dubious if what I said is true or not. "_I don't see the harm in retaining that form of yours, but if you feel as though you must physically relapse, then I won't say otherwise._"

"**It's not **_**just**_** as a safety precaution,**" I assure him. "**I want to be certain that I'm even **_**capable**_** of doing so in the first place. After all, I successfully mastered transforming into this reptilian state of body—which I used to **_**save**_** your life, if you recall—, and I want to be safely assured of the fact that I can return to normal as well.**"

"_Alright then,_" Xeno spoke with a mild irritable tone of voice. "_Just do so quickly already, before I feel as though you're _deliberately _holding back on me._"

I nodded briefly at his acceptance of my choice, and then held out my clawed hand and made a brief "shooing" motion at Xeno. "**You should step back a bit from me.**"

Lucario, without so much as saying a word, did as I asked of him and stepped back about twenty feet, until he was practically touching the trunk of the Berry tree with the tip of his tail.

Once he had done that, I began to concentrate my Elemental Aura abilities in _exactly_ the same method that I had done so earlier when I transmogrified into this dragon in the first place. Sure enough, the twelve assorted Elemental Aura abilities that I've learned over the years—Red (Fire) Aura, Orange (Melee) Aura, Yellow (Lightning) Aura, Light Green (Wind) Aura, Green (Healing) Aura, Dark Green (Nature) Aura, Light Blue (Ice) Aura, Blue (Water) Aura, Purple (Psychic) Aura, Brown (Earth) Aura, White (Light) Aura, and Black (Darkness) Aura—began to surge forth from my body and begin to revolve around me in the same spherical cocoon that enveloped me previously.

The same enormous discharge of power occurred as well, with the powerful gusts of wind that even repelled back the surface waters of the Red Sea, and blew away a hole in the earth below me from the dirt flying away, forming yet another depression in the earth in the process.

Also, because my transmogrification procedure was disturbing the waters of the Red Sea, my brothers Costas and Ian noticed this and got out of the water to see that it was _me_ causing this disruption. The fact that they went into the water with the clothes that they've _already_ been wearing didn't bother them, because the water would evaporate within an hour in the warmth of the sun.

As this was going on, Xeno just stood in place, the wind blowing at his fur and at his dreadlock-like appendages, but he himself remaining unmoved by my display of power. He merely watched on at the proficient use of aura, never seeing this done by _anybody_ before.

Eventually, my rainbow cocoon of inner energy shrunk in size down to about half and faded away altogether, causing Mother Nature herself to stop quivering under my power. And when my aura dissipated into nothingness, both Costas and Ian were—strangely enough—tempted to look away from me, while Xeno looked at me as he normally does.

When I physically felt that I had returned back to normal, I felt that I had successfully mastered how to both transform into a dragon and revert back into a human. However, before I felt proud of my accomplishment, I felt something abnormal, something that I noticed from the facial expressions of both of my brothers—but strangely not from Xeno Lucario.

"Uh… Eduardo?" Ian muttered. "Your clothes…"

"I think you may have a wardrobe malfunction…" Costas did the same.

Knowing what my brothers were referring to, I noticed the abnormality in my physical appearance almost instantly. I noticed my entire outer wardrobe and saw that it was _literally_ in tattered remains—save for the impregnable "S-Rank" related gadgets that were strapped around my torso in the shape of an "X" and around my waistline in the form of a belt. My white T-shirt was nothing more than a few torn strands of cotton that hung over my mid-section and arms, my black eye patch over my left eye was just a piece of black string wrapped around my head, my blue jeans were a shredded mess that _barely_ covered areas of importance, and my monochrome shoes were nothing more now than ragged sandals with a couple of straps made out of surviving textile.

"Hmm… Perhaps I should've seen this coming." I muttered over my tattered predicament.

Xeno briefly noticed the stunned facial expressions of my brothers and took it into account. "_For their sake, you should count yourself lucky that you're still _wearing_ something._"

"Yeah…I guess so." I agreed, placing a hand on my S1-GS device holster and retrieving it.

Both of my brothers notice Xeno's abnormal nonchalance over my near lack of clothing and can't help but wonder why he's acting so normally.

"Xeno, why are you so calm?" Costas asked him.

"_Why _aren't_ the two of you?_" Xeno looked at Costas and answered immediately. "_I don't understand your uneasiness over his predicament. It's not as though he's hiding anything _specific_ underneath his clothing._"

"…!" I was about to speak into my S1-GS device for new clothing when I suddenly felt a sharp chill run down my spine.

"What are you talking about?" Ian asked.

"_I'm talking about the fact that Eduardo is just as androgynous as I am._"

The sharp chill that I felt run down my spine earlier now froze my entire body in place, rendering it numb to movement. What Xeno just told my brothers was something that I've strained to keep hidden for as long as I live. And based on their astonished facial expressions, they wouldn't forget what Xeno said and would permanently cement it into their mind.

"…How?" I struggled to speak through my seized state of body. "How did you know of my secret?"

Xeno turned to face me and tapped the tip of his snout a few times with one of the digits of his paws. "_It's _painfully_ obvious to anyone with an extremely acute sense of smell. All I noticed from you is that you're not_ _emanating _any_ form of gender-specific hormones in your natural musk. Because of that, I hypothesized that you're just as genderless as any Pokémon, which I'll admit is extremely unusual for a human, since they're only either male or female—or both in rare cases—and have the physical anatomy to support their respective gender._"

I found it difficult in myself to show spite against him for exploiting a fact about myself that I've struggled to keep hidden for personal reasons, because I was more amazed at how _easily_ Xeno found out that trait about myself.

"(…That's a very strong nose you have.)" I pondered. "(It's much better than my own. Then again, my nose is subpar even by _human_ standards. Though the same can't be said about my sense of hearing, which I'm sure compensates for my sense of smell.)"

Costas, after taking Xeno's words into account, wonders if the Aura Pokémon is absolutely sure of himself. "Xeno, are you sure that it isn't just anything with the weather, a cold breeze to his exposed skin perhaps, that could be shrinking any signs of masculinity on E—?"

Just as he was about to finish his sentence, Ian quickly smacks his brother in the back of the head with a coiled fist. "It's not in your place to speak of such a personal matter!"

I took note of Ian's heightened sense of discipline and responded to my brothers. "You're right, Ian. However, I only concealed this fact about myself to avoid prodding questions on the subject."

"I understand," Ian remarked, understanding my need of security.

"_As do I,_" Xeno added, in a similar position as Ian.

However, Costas continued to fiddle around with the subject and ask prodding questions.

"Seriously, how do you take a piss then if you don't have a p—"

Ian, exercising his discipline on the topic, smacked his brother once again in the same manner as before.

I just rolled my eyes and exhaled strongly at Costas's persistent curiosity, deciding to just smother the fire rather than fuel it with growing questions.

"I just don't…go, from _either_ end actually, because I lack the physical anatomy to do so."

Both of my brothers gave me an astonished countenance again.

"(Just like a Pokémon,)" Xeno contemplated discreetly.

"Can we just drop the topic already?" I strongly suggested. "I'm already uncomfortable as is, without the stabbing questions that I _knew_ would result if this fact about me was made known."

"Hang on, I have one more." Costas saw right through me and continued pressing me for information, not even noticing the growing despondency he was inflicting upon me. "Even though I don't understand how exactly the human body works—I know _you_ do though—, doesn't the lack of the capability to void yourself create, quite literally, a _shitload_ of physical accumulation?"

Even though I no longer wanted to respond to these obnoxious inquiries, I actually shouldn't deny _this_ question in particular, because I haven't come to a concluding answer myself.

"To be honest with you, I wouldn't know." I responded honestly. "All that I do know is that I'm twenty-seven years old and that I'm perfectly healthy, never once encountering any problem relating to that. And while I don't know how _exactly_ my body functions as normally as any other, I'm not willing to _dissect_ myself in order to find out."

"_And I'm not willing to have you dissect me either in order to find out._" Xeno added.

"I would never do so to you, Xeno." I looked at the Aura Pokémon and smiled sincerely, before recalling the fact that I had my S1-GS device in hand and out of its respective holster. "Now, if you'll excuse me, before we spar, I should put on something a little more…durable."

"_Don't keep me waiting too long,_" He smiled back, already feeling himself growing pumped for battle.

I stepped away from Xeno, from my brothers, and proceeded over to the back of the Berry tree trunk, to remove these tattered remains that I can hardly call clothing and put on new clothing that would prove more durable than my old ones. And even though I didn't have any genitals to display and could change in the open if I felt like it, I still had enough modesty to privatize myself and do so away from view.

* * *

_27.2: Sparring Match! Eduardo vs. Xeno Lucario (Part I (1))_

Location: 28°N, 34°E

Time: 2:25 PM

Once I was ready for combat, the four of us proceeded a few miles northward from the Berry tree that remained ingrained on the top of a grassy hill. We stopped walking once we found ourselves on an open field, and both Costas and Ian stood a reasonable distance away from Xeno and I, not wanting to be caught in an accidental crossfire when our battle commences.

_Face It!/Kingdom Hearts Original Soundtrack Complete - CD7 - Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories OST/Yoko Shimomura_

_(Song Begins)_

Both Xeno and I stood face-to-face from each other, fifty feet dividing our standing positions. We both took it upon ourselves, before starting our sparring match, to make some last minute combat preparations.

For Xeno, he simply did a few stretches to make sure his body was limber and in top physical condition. And in between these stretches, he inhaled and exhaled deeply, sensing his present levels of aura, and discovering that they've been replenished fully for this upcoming one-on-one confrontation, despite his earlier ordeals.

As for me, I made sure that I had every single piece of clothing and equipment on me in order. I checked to make sure my new wardrobe was put on properly, in order to replace the tattered remnants of my older clothing.

In terms of wardrobe choice, I chose something a little more adept at tolerating strenuous physical feats as something that I would wear from here on out. What I felt was appropriate for me was a sports jacket/pants combination, manufactured from 99% polyester and 1% Auracite—which was embedded in a thin layer of "dust" across the fabric to keep it from falling apart under stressful circumstances.

The shoes themselves were manufactured with similar amounts of Auracite as well, in order to keep it resilient. And the soles on them would prove helpful in retaining traction as I moved.

All in all, the color of my new uniform was mostly white, with a pair of three black stripes running down the left and right sides of both the jacket and pants. For the jacket, the black stripes originated just off of the left and right side of my jacket's collar, and progressed outward from the sleeves until stopping just short of the ends of them, the stripes existing on the left side of my left sleeve, and on the right side of my right sleeve. For the pants, the black stripes originated on the left and right sides of my waistline, and stretched down to the bottom of my legs, standing outward on the clothing, on the left side of my left pants leg and on the right side of my right pants leg.

For the "S-Rank" inventions, I made sure that the two holster/sash combinations for my S1-GS (Grand Storage Sphere) and S2-PTSDOv.2 (Different System) devices were properly secured on my torso and sides, forming the obvious black "X" on the front and back sides of my torso, alongside the black "V" that their thigh straps formed on me from the front and back sides as well, as well as the black belt that formed when the holsters for the S1-GS device and S2-PTSDOv.2 device had their belt-like straps meet and connect.

Finally, in terms of my black eye patch over my left eye, I simply retrieved a new one that was made out of the same material as that of my new wardrobe.

With that checked out accordingly, the last thing I had to do was set up my "S-Rank" inventions to work in my favor.

I reached for a couple of S3-OSS (Optical Surveillance Sphere) devices—the "Moon Ball" S3-OSS.H and the "Luxury Ball" S3-OSS.T—that resided alongside the holster/sash combination that my S2-PTSDOv.2 device rested on. Both S3-OSS devices, with a good upward flick of my arm, were tossed high into the air, where they immediately took flight and hovered higher into the air. Both devices, after reaching a certain altitude, froze in place and locked on to each of us, one combatant per device, and instantly transmitted their recorded information wirelessly, directly towards the massive database of my Different System, for future reference.

Lastly, with nothing more than a verbal command, I retrieved my Gauntlet Shield and dual-bladed broadsword—both weapons that I had manufactured and used before—from my inventory and equipped them for my use against this imminent battle. The gauntlet portion of my Gauntlet Shield was attached to my left hand, while my dual-bladed broadsword was held in my right hand. I checked to make sure that both weapons were in working order, after I haven't used them in years.

During this time, Xeno noticed something unusual about the "S-Rank" device that I used in order to summon both of these weapons.

"(That device of his looks uncannily like the GS Ball,)" Xeno pondered to himself. "(But the only similarity between the two is an aesthetic appearance, and nothing else.)"

Both Costas and Ian, seeing our last-minute preparations, spoke to the two of us from their safe distance, with a heightened tone of voice in order to be easily understood.

"Aside from being the spectators for this battle," Ian began. "The two of us will also be the referees."

"The winner of this sparring match will be the only one standing amongst the two of you." Costas stated the simple rules. "The first to remain unconscious for an extended period of time, of which _we_ confirm with our word, will be the loser."

"On our signal," Ian stated. "Both of you show each other what you're made of."

Hearing this, both Xeno and I face my brothers and nod to them in assurance that we understood the rules of this sparring match.

Xeno then turned to face me and formed a battle stance.

"_Be sure to give it all that you've got against me,_" he said with a serious glare in his sanguine eyes.

I refaced my opponent and noticed how he had already formed his battle stance while I didn't so much as bring up my guard yet. I didn't feel it appropriate to say anything either, mostly because I didn't have anything in mind to say. All that I did to bring my guard up was have the solitary metallic hemisphere component on the outside of my Gauntlet Shield suddenly stretch out into the shape of a "+" before it unfolded further and formed a broad, circular, Spartan shield.

And with the shield aspect of my Gauntlet Shield fully formed, I brought up my metallic bulwark in front of my body and then held my dual-bladed broadsword onto the top-right portion of my shield, forming a Spartan soldier's battle stance in the process.

Already, Xeno noticed something off about me. Aside from the fact that I didn't say a word after Xeno formed a battle stance ready for combat, he noticed that there was a great delay in my response to bring up my guard alongside his own, almost as though it wasn't in my mind to do so.

And when I did bring up my guard in response to his, it was rushed, almost _forced_ in my part.

Our sparring match was about to start, and Xeno was already showing curiosity at my present behavior.

_(Song Fades and Ends)_

"Begin!" Both of my brothers shouted.

_Struggle Away/Kingdom Hearts Original Soundtrack Complete - CD7 - Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories OST/Yoko Shimomura_

_(Song Begins)_

Xeno, having already set himself on a hair trigger, immediately commenced his chain of attacks onto me. He held both of his paws into the air and channeled his aura to form two "femur bones" in the process, each of them about eighteen inches in length. And once his BONEMERANG techniques were firmly within his paws' grasp, he rushed directly towards me and launched them both with enough force to have them fly towards me faster than he was running.

Seeing these two aura bones spin madly across their own center point, I made sure my guard was rigid in order to absorb and repel the attacks with my Gauntlet Shield. And sure enough, when his twin BONEMERANG technique made contact with my shield, they made a loud reverberating sound on my shield that rivaled that of a Chinese gong, before being deflected off of their original target and fading away into the air. However, the force itself that both techniques passed onto me caused my left shield arm to recoil back ever so slightly, a sign that Xeno's force is formidable and _must_ be taken into account.

Before I could judge how powerful Xeno's attack strength was within my mind, I caught a glimpse of him leaping into the air shortly in front of me, holding another bone-shaped weapon conjured from his own inner energy. This one however was just slightly longer than he is tall—about six feet when compared to his total 5' 9" stature—and with the full intent of wielding it as if it were a Xiaolin Monk's wooden staff.

Xeno, in mid-air, optically locked onto me and held onto the aura bone for his BONE RUSH technique by one of its ends. He had enough hang time in the air to front-flip once, having himself and the weapon gain centripetal force in order to deliver a powerful downward slam onto me. Thankfully, I saw his overhead attack coming in time to raise my massive shield in order to absorb the blow once more.

His BONE RUSH attack struck my shield and created another deafening gong, one which our highly sensitive ears were ringing just slightly from, and one where my left arm was recoiling slightly from once more.

Xeno Lucario, not letting up for a moment, hopped off of the Gauntlet Shield that he struck, and back-flipped about ten feet backwards, causing me to stagger a couple of steps backwards as well from disturbing my balance in the process. And with haste, he held out his right paw and formed another aura bone for his BONE RUSH technique, now brandishing two of them in the process, one on each paw, each one holding onto their respective aura bones by the center of the shaft.

Faster than one can snap their fingers, Xeno's nimbleness of his feet closed the distance between us again, where he proved himself relentless in dealing blow after blow onto my Gauntlet Shield with his BONE RUSH technique. He constantly bombarded the broadside of my metallic defense with proficient use of wielding staff-like weaponry. He would either jab at my Gauntlet Shield with the ends of his aura bones, strike it repeatedly with dexterous sweeping motions where one attack followed fluently with another, or strike with both aura bones simultaneously.

But how he was attacking was difficult for me to see past my Gauntlet Shield, and I could only judge his attack patterns based off of the erratic, persistent reverberating that my Gauntlet Shield left for my ears to detect, and even then it was coming to me more over as an annoyance rather than an asset.

All that I did know was that with each cluster of BONE RUSH strikes, my left arm was growing ever more fatigued, even mildly numb from the Gauntlet Shield's quivering, from absorbing Xeno's powerful attacks. From my fading arm strength in maintaining my defense, I pondered the need to retaliate against him. I contemplated striking at him just as he was already striking at me without restraint over his actions.

The only obstacle that I had that was preventing me from doing so was my particular fondness over nature, from plant life to—more importantly under this circumstance—_animal_ wildlife. Because ever since I was first born and understood the general and complicated sciences of the natural wildlife around me, I always seemed to hold the idea, within my heart, that I _shouldn't_ harm plant and animal life. I'm able to manipulate either form of wildlife for my personal benefit—such as tending to my Berry plants and harvesting their abundant produce—without remorse because I knew I wasn't doing anything harmful to them. However, I always found it extremely difficult of myself to attack or inflict physical harm in anything that was alive and covered with feathers, fur, or scales, so long as it was confirmed as harmless.

Homo sapiens used to fall under this category, but because of the Roman Empire's heinous actions that led to the death of my parents and the threat of destruction of my village home, I had to make a few exceptions to my viewpoint of nature, for the greater good over the people that I valued. Because if I didn't, then my village would be nothing more than conflagrated and demolished debris that is buried under the Saudi Arabian desert that it resides upon, alongside myself, my brothers, and the village citizens.

The Roman Empire is one thing though, and Xeno Lucario is something else entirely. I can easily strike at Romans when the need arises, but against Xeno? I didn't know if I was capable of doing so, and without distaste on doing so either.

Of course, because this was a sparring match and we were supposed to be locked in combat—one against the other and vice versa—, I had no choice on the matter and forced myself to go on the offensive.

So when I timed Xeno's BONE RUSH techniques and anticipated the next few strikes, I tweaked my shield ever so slightly to my left side, immediately noticing Xeno take advantage of an opening past my bulwark. He lunged one of his aura bones directly towards my midsection, only to have it intercepted and lodged within the gap between the two blades of my dual-bladed broadsword.

Xeno, seeing how I managed to pin one of his aura bone weapons, attempted to pull it free, but found it lodged onto my sword too securely. And with a sharp twist of my sword arm's wrist, I managed to _shatter_ his aura bone like glass, before the aura fragments faded away either in mid-air or after they landed on the sand.

Upon seeing this, Xeno quickly responded by switching his remaining aura bone from his right paw to the grip of his left one, and hoisting it above his head. But just as he had his aura bone over his head, moments before bringing it down on me, I proved faster than I was originally letting on, and swung my massive shield forward and upward, having his entire body collide with it in the process. And because I put just enough strength into that swing, I disrupted his concentration in maintaining his second aura bone in existence—causing it to disappear shortly afterward—, and had him fly back about fifteen feet, where he back-flipped once in mid-air before landing on both of his feet, shaking off the impact onto my shield, and the _loudest_ of reverberating that resulted from the attack.

_(Song Fades and Ends)_

My choice of an attack left Xeno to ponder over my choice of actions.

"(He broke my BONE RUSH technique with that odd sword of his, but doesn't follow up his maneuver by swinging it at me?)" Xeno mentally reviewed my choice of actions.

Once I saw where Xeno had landed, I brought my defenses up once more, placing my shield between Xeno and me, and my sword on the top right portion of my bulwark again.

"(Instead, he swatted me aside with that oversized shield of his, sending me back so that he could fortify his defenses again.)"

Judging by the distant look on Xeno's countenance, I could tell that he was contemplating my actions in battle. And my assumption is that he was likely figure out my tactics as well.

"(This is a sparring match where we're supposed to show each other what we're capable of, both defensively _and_ offensively.)" Xeno continued to ponder while glaring at my defensive stance. "(I'm already displaying before him my aptitude in wielding aura, but I have yet to see him do so with those self-named Elemental Aura abilities of his.)"

"(Its times like this where reading minds isn't all that necessary to know what my opponent is thinking,)" I pondered, growing slightly unnerved at Xeno's temporary silence.

"(And if I want this sparring match to matter to the both of us, then I need to make sure the two of us are on the offensive, in order to see what we're both capable of, and then where we can improve from there when we eventually train, or even in mid-battle if possible.)" Xeno set a goal for himself. "(The only problem I'm seeing is what's _exactly_ causing Eduardo to restrict himself.)"

"…" I could feel one bead of sweat roll down the right side of my face, partly from the heat of the afternoon sun and partly from my nervousness of Xeno's physical stagnancy and cerebral contemplation.

For Xeno, it was time to find out.

"_Your choice of a blunt defense over a sharp offense_ _tells me that you're not giving it your all against me, as I told you before._" Xeno speculated. "_It also tells me that you're not taking this sparring match as seriously as you should be, as seriously as _I've_ already shown in my part._"

"…" I remained rigid at Lucario's accurate assumption.

"_The__question that I must ask you is…why? Why are you deliberately holding back against me? Why aren't you showing me what you're made of? Don't you understand how _severe_ this is—when we look at what we're training for—, if you don't show me your power?_"

"…" My stance remained frozen, while my head tilted away from Xeno, because of my inability to answer him, to tell him my reasons why.

Xeno, for speed's sake, turned to face my two brothers who were observing our "battle" and ask them what was on his mind.

"_Costas, Ian? The two of you have known Eduardo for _years_ compared to my…today._" He conversed with them. "_So you should know about his disposition almost instinctively._"

"Yes, we do," Ian responded.

"For the most part, anyway," Costas responded as well.

"_Then, can you tell me why _exactly_ Eduardo is restricting himself against me?_"

Both of my brothers contemplated the answers to this question based on their life experiences with me. And in doing so, they already recalled a couple of key events where I inadvertently stated my opinion on animals.

The first event on their minds occurred a little over a decade ago, during the day _after_ I had successfully constructed my S1-GS device. I stated how I had manufactured a program that would allow me to have plant wildlife thrive within my S1-GS device, and how I'd come to manufacturing one for animals to be able to reside within there without running the risk of death. But what they recalled strongly was how I said that I wouldn't use that function after I had implanted it into the S1-GS device, because I believed it to be wrong to contain animals, especially if it was against their will, and that I would only use it sparingly, such as for emergencies.

The second event was much fresher in their minds, mostly in part because it occurred yesterday. It was when I traveled ahead of both Costas and Ian via my S3-OSS devices, to a scene involving five Roman nomads and a _hemorrhaging_ Xeno Lucario. All that my brothers knew was that I had inflicted my vengeful wrath upon the five of them—even though we knew now that the hooded figure was the one responsible for Xeno's injuries at that time—, stating myself quite clearly to my brothers, when the topic was prompted, that they could never harm another "miracle of nature" again.

Xeno Lucario, a miracle of nature. That was the answer to the Aura Pokémon's question.

"It's actually a simple answer," Ian began. "Eduardo's basic nature and preferences are overpowering his will to fight you."

This began to intrigue Xeno.

"_What do you mean?_" He pressed on.

"Well firstly," Costas began. "Eduardo _greatly_ dislikes fighting against anyone that he loves. Even during our own sparring matches, he would only fight defensively against us, and offensively on his own training times."

Xeno took these words seriously, as they were already occurring before his eyes with him and me.

"He also has a deep respect for nature," Ian continued. "That much is evident when you recall his surplus Berry plants, and the fact that he _demolished_ five Roman nomads vindictively when he noticed what they pondered to do with your bleeding body."

Xeno recalled that event quite freshly in his mind, but the vast majority of it was a blank to him, mostly in part to the fact that he was _unconscious_. All that he knew about that day yesterday was that the hooded figure was responsible for his injuries, and then Eduardo tended to them, quite literally saving his life in the process.

At this moment, the side of Xeno that was willing to let him see through _my_ eyes and _my_ viewpoints and _my_ characteristics was allowing him to understand just what type of predicament I've placed myself in. I've volunteered to spar with Xeno, mostly because he wished it and I didn't, and I was only fighting defensively because I couldn't bear to attack someone that I was already beginning to bond with.

Costas finished where Ian left off. "Lastly, he does have a phenomenal amount of self-control, which he's proven that he possesses whenever he uses his Elemental Aura abilities, as well as that frightening dragon that he has learned to become."

Xeno, having heard all that he needed from my brothers, turned to face me, noticing that I haven't budged at all as they conversed.

"_Is all of this true, Eduardo?_" Xeno asked me gingerly.

There was no reason for me to deny any of this truth, so I simply looked back at the Aura Pokémon and said "…Yes" with a feeble, brief tone of voice.

Xeno smiled faintly at the new information that he learned about me.

"_Well, what can I say aside from the fact that I only wish other people could follow your example._"

I listened closely to Xeno's words, finding myself calming down slightly in the process, because I was finding out that he was taking this well. However, I didn't calm down _completely_ because I knew we were still sparring against each other, and we were both merely taking a momentary martial hiatus.

"_Because, based on my experience with people, they only see me—see _Pokémon_—as nothing more tools for their plans, as weapons that they believe they can control, temper, claim, and assimilate into their own strength._"

Xeno's soliloquy highlighted to me characteristics that I know I lack, and knew that I didn't desire.

"_My viewpoint on humanity was cemented by the people that captured me and used me for their nefarious schemes. I have Team Rocket and their superior, Giovanni, to blame for that._"

As I was learning about Xeno's bitter back-story, I took into my mind the two key topics—"Team Rocket" and "Giovanni"—and began to imagine the organization at work, an organization where evil men use Pokémon in the same way that the Romans use their swords, as nothing more than tools for their personal benefit, weapons that are _disposed_ of when they inevitably break or dull, that are forged under a fiery hell in order to harden them for a life of crime, all against their better will.

"_And if it weren't for the kindness that you and your two brothers displayed before me when I required it most, I would've likely died with the idea that humanity is nothing more than a plague upon this planet, fraudulent and hostile, spreading carnage and despair wherever they inhabit._"

His tone of voice was somber and emotionally penetrating that at one point, I could feel my eyes water at his hardships. I blinked a few times and rolled my eyes inward to have my tears return within my eyelids.

Xeno feels now that he's digressed enough from the sparring match, and decided to begin to return towards it with his words. "_So, even though we can have concrete natures for most of our lives, there are times where we must temporarily set them aside, whether we wish it, loathe it, or are caught off guard by it, in order to accomplish something greater than ourselves, to overcome hardships that would normally be out of our reach._"

"…" I said nothing now, because at this point, Xeno wouldn't listen to my reasons as though they were immaterial and merely continue with his actions.

"_In our case, it's our inevitable conflict with the hooded figure and his Superior, in the form of the 'Void of the Dark One' that I'm apparently destined to prevent from coming forth in existence. And in order to stand a chance against this looming threat, the _four_ of us must train to the point where we can't physically take any more, and then train some more, with this sparring match being our first step in that long process._"

Unnecessarily, I said "What did you have in mind?" with a docile tone of voice that Xeno could barely detect.

"_I will make sure that the two of us fight unrestricted. For my case, there's no resistance against you, as I've already demonstrated when we began. But for your case, you must learn to _let go_ of your respect for nature during battle, to attack a fellow comrade with soldierly intent, to _kill_ instead of _being_ killed. Otherwise, it wouldn't do the four of us any good to train under our own power if we didn't have a proper sparring partner that can push us to our respective limits._"

Before my eyes, I noticed that Xeno's aura began to radiate all across his body, his aura field enveloping him entirely, and causing his overall _muscle mass_ to increase steadily.

"(He can amplify his own muscle mass at will?)" I pondered in astonishment over his unfolding abilities.

When Xeno's BULK UP technique completed its job, he forms his battle stance against me once more. His eyes sharpen in warlike intensity and lock onto me, where their pupils spontaneously transformed from a bloody red to a metallic gold, the veins surrounding his eyes swelled with extra blood flow, and the dreadlock-like appendages that hung behind his head hovered fully horizontal and vibrated faintly with energy that amplifies his ability to sense aura and anticipate his opponents actions.

His tone of telepathic voice turned more hostile as well. "_So, whether you like it or not, I'll force a change of nature within you, even if I must break every bone in your body in the process! I'll shatter the bulwark that you cower behind, even if I crush you while you're still underneath it!_"

Whether Xeno was deliberately attempting to intimidate me or not, he was successful at doing so. My eyes widened under his sudden resolution and my heart pumped a little bit harder when I was made unnerved.

"_With me as your opponent, you won't run the risk of death,_" Xeno made himself loud and clear before me. "_But as we fight, you might just wish for it!_"

* * *

_27.3: Shattering the Bulwark! Eduardo vs. Xeno Lucario (Part II (2))_

Time: 2:47 PM

_Victory Road (Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire)/Pokémon/Super Smash Bros. Brawl OST_

_(Song Begins)_

Faster than I could blink, Xeno's immense AGILITY allowed him to run right at me, his furry blue thighs and lean black legs were nothing more than an unrecognizable blur to me. Seeing him coming at me, I only had enough time to swat at him again with my Gauntlet Shield.

Xeno, his anticipatory senses and reflexes _exponentially_ greater than my own, saw my motion coming as I was about to perform it, and already knew how to counteract my move.

When I made the motion to swat at him with my shield defensively, I moved my shield in an upward arc. And when I did so, I saw a brief black, blue, and yellow blur sliding directly _underneath_ my defense. I only had enough time to turn my head to face Xeno as he slid across the dirt and made his play.

When Xeno slid directly behind me and past my metallic defense, he immediately dug his paw spikes into the earth to halt his momentum. And then, with a mixture of speed and surprising flexibility, he managed to position himself into a handstand before spinning himself to the point where he delivered both of his feet upon my lower back, delivering a ROLLING KICK attack that, with the added beneficial effects of BULK UP, sent me flying forward, in the general direction that Xeno's attack was aimed at.

The attack's force and swiftness came as so much of a shock to me that when I was sent flying forward—shouting a brief yelp of pain directly following the impact—, I instantly let go of my grip on my dual-bladed broadsword, having it travel a bit in my direction before its tip lodged somewhat into the earth and remained obtusely vertical.

Luckily for my sake, the shock that I sustained was brief, and I managed to reorient my balance in mid-air by first planting my massive shield onto the earthy floor and cart-wheeling off of it, where I then landed back on my two feet and skidded back about five more, facing Xeno just as he was closing in on me yet again, not even giving me the chance to ponder at his surprising attributes.

Thankfully, because of the distance that Xeno's kick provided for me—which was about thirty feet by my calculations—, I had enough time to _hastily_ fortify my defenses against his bafflingly great power. My body began to radiate Brown (Earth) Aura, and I quickly pondered the two words "(_Terra Fortification_!)" before slamming my Gauntlet Shield's immense shield, in its entirety, onto the earth below me, burying it partially in the process. And when I uprooted my shield from the earth, a thick wall of rock was layered over my metallic bulwark, and my Brown (Earth) Aura ceased.

Xeno, seeing my defensive tactics at keeping him at bay, pondered "(You're naiveté of Pokémon typing will cost you…)" as he continued to run towards me.

Just as he was halfway at closing our distance, he held out both of his paws and curled them up into fists, each one brimming with white light as he was using BULLET PUNCH on one paw and MACH PUNCH in another, simultaneously.

I saw Xeno's attack coming and braced for impact by hunkering back behind my reinforced shield, to the best of my ability because I was still vastly unsure of Xeno's physical potential.

Xeno, once he closed our distance within seconds, immediately began punching away at my hardened Gauntlet Shield with BULLET PUNCH and MACH PUNCH in tandem, the distance in time between each punch being—to my utmost surprise—every _third_ of a second, and the force behind each punch became the biological equivalent of a jackhammer.

All I did for myself was brace for Xeno's force of attacks, but I didn't brace myself for the _speed_ that he was capable of moving his arms at in order to place his punches onto my shield. So because of Xeno's overwhelming punching power and punching rate that I could've never hoped to properly account for, the rock encompassing my Gauntlet Shield began to chip away at an alarming pace, piece by piece, chunk by chunk. And as my _defenses_ over my defenses began to weaken, so did my left arm's stamina at absorbing each and every one of Xeno's punches that were launched my way.

"(What kind of physical training have you accomplished to be able to move at such a high speed, and pack so much force into your individual attacks?!)" I pondered with an alarmed tone of mind, my teeth gritted tightly as the pain began to settle in onto my left arm.

Xeno, as he continued his brutal barrage of lightning-fast punches, continued to break away at the hardened earth on my Gauntlet Shield until one powerful attack would shatter it altogether.

So when that moment came to him, the white light that surrounded both of his paws and amplified his attacks disappeared when he ceased using BULLET PUNCH and MACH PUNCH. However, a much _stronger_ white light, brimming in conjunction with his own aura, glowed all the more brilliantly over his lower left arm.

This energy in particular took on a unique state of shape. The energy field enveloping Xeno's left paw formed a perfect sphere, and the energy field enveloping the area between his left wrist and left elbow streaked energy, to the point where the entirety of this dense energy had an anatomy similar to that of a shooting star.

"(…And my experience in combat will overwhelm you.)" He pondered when his METEOR MASH attack fully formed and blazed brilliantly.

All Xeno had to do to launch this powerful technique was swing his left arm back. Then, with all of the force that he could physically muster into his METEOR MASH attack, he swung his arm and upper body forward, and punched the center of my Gauntlet Shield. And with the tremendous force that he had imbued into his left arm, he not only managed to successfully _shatter_ the remaining rock off of it, but he also managed to forcefully slam the shield _into_ me and dent it considerably.

And as he expected, the force of his technique sent me flying back another couple of dozen feet backwards, where I landed on my back and slid a little on the earth.

When I stopped sliding back, I sprung back onto my feet, and could feel a powerful aching on my left shield arm. I didn't even have to look under the gauntlet of my Gauntlet Shield to know that it was considerably bruised. Though I did have to look at the shield portion of my Gauntlet Shield to know just what kind of damage it had endured.

"(What…tremendous…power…!)" I thought in astonishment when I noticed that the surface of my shield now resembled that of the lunar surface, completely covered in rough, impactful dents, the most prominent of them all being the one directly in the center of my Gauntlet Shield.

And because of that final punch that Xeno launched at me, I knew that he had badly damaged the electrical motoring within my Gauntlet Shield that allows it to unfold and refold back into a compact shape, to spin alongside its center point, to form the spiked edging alongside the circumference of the weapon, and even _launch_ the shield from my gauntlet itself as a massive buzz-saw projectile.

With that METEOR MASH attack, my Gauntlet Shield had been crippled.

Xeno, seeing how my shield is starting to give, continued his onslaught at me. He used his finely tuned psychic abilities by casting TELEKINESIS on himself, allowing him to hover high into the air until he was practically fifty feet over my head. I see Xeno in the air and only raise my damaged Gauntlet Shield in defense for what I was expecting to come.

"_That large shield of yours won't protect you forever!_" He shouted at me from his height.

"…" I couldn't bring myself to say anything on the manner because I knew that he was speaking the truth.

Xeno Lucario, holding both paws before his eyes, conjured two spherical-shaped projectile attacks, one on each of his paws. His left arm held his trademark AURA SPHERE technique, where his innate aura swirled around a compacted sphere like a mad typhoon. His right arm held FLASH CANNON, where white light gathered onto the center of his palm, dense in power and in the exact same diameter as his AURA SPHERE technique. He launched both attacks straight down at me, and I could feel their explosive impact rattle across my damaged Gauntlet Shield, damaging it ever so slightly further and sending shockwaves of energy coursing through my body, particularly across my bruised arm.

He launched wave after wave of AURA SPHERE and FLASH CANNON in tandem at me, each attack never missing its mark and causing more and more damage as their explosive energy transferred over to my bulwark. Their respective attack power proved great enough to not only pass through my shield and have me feel ripples of their energy, but actually _crack_ the ground where I stood. The earth caved in gradually more and more with each of his projectile attacks.

After launching a dozen AURA SPHEREs and a dozen FLASH CANNONs, Xeno stopped firing them at me altogether. He then inhaled sharply, having his chest puff up in the process. And when he exhaled, he launched his FLAMETHROWER attack directly downward, having fire rain down on top of me.

The powerful stream of fire immediately connected onto my Gauntlet Shield and spilled out all around it, causing me to be surrounded by scorching hot conflagrations, all around my body. The fire itself wasn't touching me, but the four-digit temperatures that it possessed did, causing me to sweat heavily as I felt my body temperature rise.

My Gauntlet Shield proved very resilient to fire—as it had done so through my past martial experience—, but could only hold for so long in this same position before the heat seeps through it and begins to become problematic. If Xeno decides to hold this attack's power for about a minute, then I run the risk of sustaining burns on my left arm when the heat crosses over to the cooler inner side of the Gauntlet Shield.

However, that wasn't what Xeno had in mind, because in about thirty seconds of FLAMETHROWER consistency, he stopped using the technique when he ran out of breath. And rather than inhale and use FLAMETHROWER again, he tuned his aura to help him gather the airborne moisture around him and the condensed it into a compacted, wrecking ball-sized sphere of water that he held within his paws, keeping the WATER PULSE technique stable and circular with his palms.

I peeked through my shield ever so slightly to see what Xeno was doing now, noticing the large sphere of water that he was now in possession of, and not _particularly_ fond of the physics-based idea that Xeno had contemplated against my red-hot metallic defense.

Before my eyes, I saw him fling his WATER PULSE technique directly at me, which came at me too fast to avoid. Because my shield was already up, it took the full force of his Water-Type attack, and because of the tremendous heat that the Gauntlet Shield had acquired from Xeno's earlier FLAMETHROWER attack, his WATER PULSE technique quickly cooled my shield down, and formed a thick layer of steam that shrouded the view all around me. And Xeno, from his perch in mid-air, had no problems identifying me within the steam cloud because of his Aura Vision ability.

"(And now the time has come for me to shatter that bulwark of yours,)" Xeno contemplated darkly.

With his TELEKINESIS, he hovered slightly more forward, so that he was now directly above me. And when he confirmed his position over me with his Aura Vision ability, he immediately disengaged his TELEKINESIS and dropped like a stone back to terra firma.

In a feeble attempt to blow away the steam so that I could see Xeno's present location, I attempted to have my Gauntlet Shield spin alongside its center point. Unfortunately, as I already knew, the electrical motors were badly damaged, so all I got was crackling electrical sounds as my Gauntlet Shield spun pitifully in short, almost unnoticeable bursts.

All of this game me a terrifying understanding of the opponent I was clashing with.

"(I never would've thought this possible, but it appears that my Gauntlet Shield has reached its end,)" I pondered gravely.

Xeno, about to land directly on top of my defense, oriented himself in mid-air so that his two front paws would come crashing down firstly upon me. "_How right you are!_" He spoke in response to sensing my thoughts.

Before I knew it, I felt something large and heavy slam into my Gauntlet Shield, the momentum that Xeno was moving at in conjunction to gravity proved to be too much for me to bear, and too much for my Gauntlet Shield to bear as well.

When Xeno brought both of his front paws crashing down into my Gauntlet Shield—in the form of his ROCK SMASH technique—, my shield, already made brittle by both his FLAMETHROWER and WATER PULSE techniques in tandem, couldn't hope to handle one more stalwart attack and simply shattered like glass upon Xeno's crashing impact.

And, true to Xeno's earlier words about crushing me underneath my own broken bulwark, he kept going through my shield and landed directly on _top_ of me, causing me to immediately collapse onto my back, with the momentum of his paws greatly transferred over to my ribcage.

_(Song Ends)_

Both Costas and Ian, unable to see what exactly occurred, waited for the smoke to clear. And once the steam was dispersed across the air, the present constitutions of both Xeno and I was taken into their account.

They saw Xeno removing his front paw from my sternum, getting up and off of me after he landed on me with ROCK SMASH. They saw me on my back and on the floor, cringing in pain. They also saw the Gauntlet Shield in sharp, metallic fragments, scattered all across our location as nothing more than scrap metal.

"Holy crap…" Ian muttered under his own breath, astonished at Xeno's ferocity.

"Xeno's _really_ not holding anything back against him." Costas could feel a bead of nervous sweat roll down the side of his head.

"(*Cough*Cough*Wheeze*)"

The impact that I sustained from Xeno's ROCK SMASH attack badly bruised both my lungs and my ribcage. The immediate physical response from my bodily damage was a tremendous, temporary amount of labored breathing, and a few coughing episodes which caused me to hemorrhage a significant amount of blood orally. The blood itself managed to stain the area of skin all around my mouth sanguine, and sprayed a bit further than that in the process, allowing it to reach the center of my jacket, and even a few strands of fur on the front of Xeno's lower black legs.

Xeno didn't seem to mind at all, because he was more focused on my martial situation.

"_I've successfully shattered your bulwark._" He said with a somber tone of voice rather than that of a braggart. "_With that massive shield out of my way, I've rendered your options more or less to the point where you're _forced_ to fight back at me._"

"(*Cough*)" I continued to cough small amounts of blood, each convulsion of my respiratory system irritating my bruises and stabbing me with unforgiving pain.

"_Are you going to fight back now?_" Xeno curled his left paw into a fist and made the preliminary motion to drive it down onto my sternum."_Or do I have to continue to pummel you until you understand?_"

Before my eyes, I saw Xeno _willingly_ drive his fist down onto my sternum, and I could feel myself automatically cry out in pain at the sickening feeling of having my ribcage warp ever so slightly when he didn't hold anything back with his punch.

He continued to do so again and again, with the same amount of force each and every time, deliberately so as to not break my bones, yet still causing me tremendous grief, enough for tears of pain to begin to stream down my eyes. The pain of it all resonated with my every heartbeat, and proved overwhelming to me.

Xeno, showing no mercy in battle, suddenly stopped striking me and began to sense something stir within me, through his active Aura Vision ability. He sensed that my aura began to shift to a different concrete color, much like it did earlier when I used my Brown (Earth) Aura to fortify my Gauntlet Shield.

Before his eyes, my body began to radiate Purple (Psychic) Aura, an aura color that Xeno knew from my earlier explanation of my abilities to him that it signified my use of Elemental Aura. The only problem that Xeno saw of this was _his own_ naiveté on my Elemental Aura abilities. He knew so little of my power that he didn't know yet what each color signified, what attribute each color represented for me, and what I could do with it under my control.

He immediately noticed that my face hardened from an earlier face of tearful pain to that of sheer aggression. He saw that I quickly held out one hand towards his body, at which point my Purple (Psychic) Aura momentarily spiked in power.

"(_Psycho Repulse_!)" I pondered those two words that allowed me to send him flying into the air, far back and away from me.

The swiftness of my telekinetic burst upon him knocked him reasonably high into the air, at about the same height that most birds fly at. The sudden acceleration of his launch stunned him somewhat, until he reached the apex of his trajectory, where he snapped out of his temporary shock in order to reorient himself in mid-air to land back down to earth, a full fifty feet from my location.

"(Was that a telekinetic force he just inflicted upon me?)" He pondered in genuine astonishment of my sudden burst of power. "(If so, I'm truly astonished that he can actually _wield_ psychic abilities, and with enough power in them that would make even _Mewtwo_ curious.)"

Once Xeno was far enough away from me, I struggled somewhat to get back on my feet, mostly because the use of my arms was somewhat hindered by the deep bruising I had endured around and within my ribcage. The first thing that I did was reach for my S1-GS device, only to deposit what remained of my broken Gauntlet Shield.

"(I have just as much to learn about his abilities as he does of mine.)" I pondered, storing my Gauntlet Shield away.

I locked eyes on Xeno after putting away my S1-GS device and formed a defensive battle stance as I locked eyes with him, keeping him in my vision, and tolerating my pain to the best of my ability, which was fairly easy of me in my position and through my past experiences with harsh pain.

Xeno, seeing my battle stance, smiled slightly with hope. "_Are you finally going to go into the offensive? Because I'll admit, I'm getting bored of using you as a punching bag._"

I inhaled and exhaled deeply and rhythmically a few times, feeling my body shrugging off some of the pain from Xeno's direct punches.

"I won't," I admitted to him stubbornly. "I can't bring myself to attack you offensively."

Xeno's smile immediately faded and he looked at me with crossed arms and a mildly irritated countenance.

"_Do you understand just what this will mean for the four of us, in the long run, if you remain unchanged in your disposition?_"

"…Entirely," I responded instantly.

"_And do you also understand that if you remain this way in terms of your natural demeanor, that I'll be forced to change your nature to the best of my ability with the strength that I possess, and that I'll be held responsible for the severe damage that I'll inflict upon you if you still decide _not_ to retaliate against me properly?_"

"Yes," I responded instantly.

"_Why?_"

My answer to his question couldn't be more effortless and sincere in my part to answer.

"Because after having saved your life twice, _in tandem_, and after having spent some time talking to you actively, I've come to realize something."

"_And what is that?_" Xeno asked me curiously.

"I've come to the conclusion that I love you, deeply, alongside both of my brothers, because I already see you as a member of our small family. And alongside both of my brothers, I would much rather protect you than fight against you."

My answer, unsurprisingly, caused his eyes to widen, and his blood pressure to drop slightly, just enough to cause his Aura Vision ability to glitch temporarily, which was almost unnoticeable except to Xeno himself. A mild feeling of guilt and misunderstanding surfaced within him as well, when he began to question his choice of actions in response to my own.

Both of my brothers saw great truth in my words, based on their earlier actions with Xeno as well, when they first met him and tended to his wounds, where he responded to their kindness by fending off a Roman legion single-handedly.

Through my defensive stance, I attempted to envelop my body in Orange (Melee) Aura, and find myself having some difficulty in keeping a heightened level of power in the process, for reasons that I've already explained to Xeno.

"As you can plainly see, I'm finding myself having difficulty changing my character to satisfy your intentions and our long-terms goals. I've been fighting defensively for the most part, in order to avoid dealing damage upon you. And even though I'm adaptable in combat, that all depends on my willingness to be so."

Xeno shuffled his eyes a few times and gathered his thoughts after I had caused him to spill them over inadvertently.

"_S…So then…why did you volunteer to spar against me if you knew that you would confront this problem?_"

The answer once again came fairly straightforward to me, and I was immediate with my response.

"It's so that I can teach myself to set that nature aside in battle, if we are to train and teach each other for the looming threat at hand. Because, based on my assumptions, our greatest chance against the hooded figure and the Dark One is if we clash alongside each other ad nauseam, in order to strengthen ourselves in combat and reach levels of power that we never knew we possessed. And as I see it, the only way that we can even _hope_ to acquire that chance is if I learn to strike a friend _without_ restraint, whether I like the idea of doing so or not."

For Xeno Lucario, the mild feeling of misinterpretation faded away as quickly as it had risen. He knew now that this was just as much my choice as it was his own, rather than it being his choice and me deciding to go along with it.

"_What should I do then, to help change your nature?_" He asked me, in order to understand fully.

"Just keep doing what you're _already_ doing," I said. "Fight me. Make me hemorrhage internally. Try to make me crap and piss blood—even though we both know that I physically can't. Do whatever you can in your power to bend my nature in order for me to strike at you with the same amount of unrestraint as you're so proficiently demonstrating in our sparring match."

All of a sudden, without warning, I could feel myself _convulsing_ somewhat after I had said that. The spasms I was having were minute, unrecognizable by my brothers or Xeno from their distance, and completely against my physical self-control. Luckily for my sake, that bizarre episode stopped altogether, but still remained as an odd occurrence within my mind, one that I set aside when I awaited Xeno's response.

The Aura Pokémon inhaled and exhaled once, with his eyes closed, albeit still active with his Aura Vision ability. When Xeno opened his eyes, his aura field made itself present and flared brilliantly, causing some disturbance to the earthbound green and loose soil in the process. And with his martial senses sharpened further for battle, he channeled his aura and dispersed it around himself, allowing him to spontaneously multiply from one Xeno Lucario to _ten_ Xeno Lucario.

Both Costas and Ian have seen Xeno's DOUBLE TEAM technique before with their own eyes, back when he righteously defended their village home from Mars's first Roman battalion. However, they were caught off guard and rendered speechless by just how well Xeno could use that technique at his disposal, demonstrating that he wasn't limited to merely multiplying himself into three.

For me, I was just genuinely astonished at Xeno's display of his exotic abilities. I never would've believed it to be possible of _anyone_ to be able to not only speak without using their voice, but to _warp_ and also _replicate_ themselves perfectly.

"(Is this what it's like to face against someone who is a fitting match for your abilities?)" I pondered to myself.

"_If that is what you wish…_" All _ten_ Xeno duplicates spoke in unison through their telepathy, a few moments before they all formed different battle stances. "_Then _we_ will hold nothing back against you._"

In an instant, all ten Aura Pokémon duplicates spontaneously TELEPORT-ed from their stagnant locations, disappearing from my view, as well as that of both of my brothers.

Still postured in my defensive stance, I felt enough apprehension to feel my Elemental Aura abilities elevate in terms of their power. The Orange (Melee) Aura that I was presently emanating flared a bit more potently, a helpful aid in my part against Xeno's surprising physical strength.

The silence that I sensed disappeared after about ten seconds passed, where the first Xeno doppelganger TELEPORT-ed directly in front of me.

* * *

_27.4: Releasing the Primal State from Within! Eduardo vs. Xeno Lucario (Part III (3))_

Time: 3:03 PM

_Extreme Encounters/Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep & 358/2 Days OST/Yoko Shimomura_

_(Song Begins)_

With the speed that I've already seen before from Xeno, he clashed against me again. He punched at me left and right, towards my face, my torso, and my stomach, seeing whatever opening in my guard that he feels confident in exploiting.

However, with each punch that he threw my way, my Orange (Melee) Aura granted me the hyperkinetic properties necessary to defend against every one of his swift attacks. If he so much as jabbed at me, I swatted his paws aside or caught them before shifting them away from my center. If he so much as roundhouse kicked me, I jumped over his arcing leg, backed away, or crouched below it. If he swiped his arms against me, I brought up my own to stop his attack, while being very careful of avoiding his paw-spikes in the process.

Xeno's chain of martial art style attacks continued for five minutes straight, where he came to this idea.

"_With that orange aura of yours, you're able to match my speed, and deflect blow after blow that I launch your way._"

I didn't respond to his words because I was too preoccupied from keeping him from striking at me.

"_Be that as it may seem…_"

Xeno fell back from my position before warping away from my view. And in only a couple of seconds, _four_ Lucario emerged around me, out of the ten that manifested through Xeno's DOUBLE TEAM technique.

They all spoke in unison, their voices surrounding me as well as their presence.

"_…Will your power be able to cope with my numbers?_"

All four Xeno clones lunged themselves at me, in tandem rather than simultaneously, so that I couldn't simply leap out of harm's way and have them collide comically against each other.

My senses on overdrive, I defend against each and every one of them as they come my way. The Lucario directly in front of me is the first to reach me, and throws a one-two jab combo my way, which I weave narrowly out of the way to avoid before shoving him aside. The other three Lucario however manage to reach me before I can react and each place a jab on my back, causing me to stagger a few feet forward.

I turn about-face to see three Lucario trained my way, their fists flying at me. And despite my best efforts to swat them aside, I found myself recoiling after I felt a couple of punches strike my stomach and my right cheek.

The first Lucario, that I swatted aside earlier, attempted to intercept me from behind while I was still reeling back. However, he only did so a second too late, and I managed to _counter_-intercept his incoming fist by grabbing his entire arm with both hands, clinging tight to it. And then, using the doppelganger's own momentum against him, I effortlessly swung his entire body towards the other three Xeno clones.

The speed at which I did so proved too fast for any of them to react against, and they all collided harshly with each other, moments before they all disappeared in a puff of white smoke.

"(That's four down.)" I pondered. "(But where are the other six?)"

Almost as if I had tempted him, Xeno Lucario and his five remaining doppelgangers TELEPORT-ed from their invisibility to be seen before me. Each of the six of them surrounded me with their presence and their glares of martial intensity, and all six of them held out their left paws at me, channeling their aura and charging up an AURA SPHERE to fire at me.

"_Here we are!_" the six of them said in unison.

"Oh shit!"

In a hurry, I converted my set Elemental Aura from Orange (Melee) Aura to Brown (Earth) Aura. And immediately after doing so, I pondered the two words "(_Terra Pyramid_!)" before hoisting my hands in the air, and commanding a triangular prism wall of rock to surround me and protect me.

My technique completed its formation a second before Xeno's AURA SPHEREs fully charged up and fired at my tellurian wall. Their explosive impact greatly cracked my earthbound defense and chipped it at random points, but didn't cause the entire structure to collapse in a heap of rubble.

That's what Xeno's BRICK BREAK technique is for anyway.

In unison, all six Xeno Lucario leapt into the air and landed directly upon my _Terra Pyramid_, striking at it with a downward paw chop. And with their BRICK BREAK technique striking true, my _Terra Pyramid_ stood no chance against their combined strength, and crumbled into a heap of individual fragments.

However, much to Xeno's surprise, I wasn't concealed under my technique at the last moment of it s crumbling. All that he exposed after crushing the pyramid of rock was a man-sized hole in the earth, what my _Terra Merge_ technique allowed me to make in order to evade him altogether.

All six Xeno clones, with their Aura Vision abilities active, scanned the ground below them to see where exactly I had gone off to.

However, because of the depth that I had dug underground, the minute aura that each layer of soil and earth emanated added up to cause Xeno great interference. Try as hard as he could, he couldn't distinguish my own aura from that of the earth, even though my aura had a different color scheme than that of the common dirt.

"(Ugh… He's doing what that Steelix did to me years ago…)" He recollected on his past.

Completely under Xeno's radar, I resurfaced from the earth a full one-hundred feet away from Xeno, and with great speed in reaching that distance.

When I resurfaced, my clothing had collected a mild light brown hue to it from the dirt, but that wasn't of my concern at the moment. What was however was preventing Xeno's numbers from surrounding me and having a chance to overwhelm me like he did so earlier.

Still emanating Brown (Earth) Aura, I channeled more of its power to my two individual hands, causing the aura field surrounding them to intensify when compared to the rest of my body.

Xeno, with his Aura Vision ability, sensed a great mass of Aura about a hundred feet from his exact location, and turned to face the source.

Knowing now that I was detected, I raised my hands high into the air and then firmly smacked both of my palms down onto the ground, causing a loud, snapping reverberation in the process. "(_Terra Shockwave_!)" Was the two key words pondered that caused my technique to activate.

Before Xeno's feet, the entire earth where he stood shook violently with an earthquake that my Brown (Earth) Aura allowed me to generate. And much to his dismay, he found himself—as well as his five DOUBLE TEAM clones—rendered immobile because my technique struck one of his three natural type attribute weaknesses: The Ground-Type.

"(Damn it! He managed to strike one of my weak points!)" Xeno pondered sourly.

Unfazed by my own technique, still emanating Brown (Earth) Aura in high quantities, and with my palms still placed firmly on the ground, I followed up my _Terra Shockwave_ with another technique.

"(_Terra Bulwark_!)" I pondered loudly before I dug my fingers, hands, and arms deep into the earth, just short of burying my elbows under as well.

The Brown (Earth) Aura provided me with the ability to mold the earth in whatever shape that I allowed. And with the _Terra Bulwark_ technique, a thick wall of rock was deracinated under my Elemental Aura power, and resided between both the six Xeno Lucario and me.

With my _Terra Bulwark_ now in place, I shifted my Elemental Aura from Brown (Earth) Aura back to Orange (Melee) Aura, and focused the entirety of it not on my whole body, but only on my arms and hands.

Xeno, still physically jarred from my _Terra Shockwave_ technique, could only watch on with his active Aura Vision ability at my next choice of actions.

"(_Martial Quicken_!)" I pondered, feeling the hyperkinetic properties of my Orange (Melee) Aura greatly loosen my entire forearm muscles, from the tips of my fingertips to the base of my shoulders, allowing me to jab out at _exponentially_ faster speeds than normality would limit, just as quickly if not _greater_ than what Xeno was capable of with his BULLET PUNCH and MACH PUNCH conjunction.

With my _Martial Quicken_ technique now in full effect, I lashed out at—of all things—my _Terra Bulwark_. Each punch that I launched—at an inhuman rate of _five_ a second—caused multiple small fragments of my _Terra Bulwark_ to break off and fly in the general direction that I punched. Within seconds, dozens of mid-sized stones flew outward from my wall of rock, _all_ of them flying towards Xeno and very high speed.

When Xeno's body eventually stopped shuddering after the effects of my _Terra Shockwave_, he realized that it was too late and that the incoming stones were, at this late in their trajectory, unavoidable. All that he and his clones could do was parry against them to the best of their ability.

The six Xeno that I targeted were able to sense the incoming stones with their respective Aura Vision ability and either evade or ward them off as they came within contact of them. However, because of the inevitable lapse in their defense sequence, an unavoidable combination of incoming stones, or a misjudgment of the incoming stones' speed and mass, two of the Xeno clones bit the dust before becoming it, leaving the remaining four to ward off the stone barrage.

With half of the _Terra Bulwark_ gone after I pummeled it relentlessly, I channeled my Orange (Melee) Aura—of what I was already emanating on both of my arms—towards the center of my right palm, with the intent of using just one technique to send my _Terra Bulwark_ crashing into Xeno and his remaining clones.

"(_Martial Palm_!)"

My right palm, with all of the present energy from my Orange (Melee) Aura in its center, was firmly planted onto what remained of my _Terra Bulwark_. The immediate result was a detonation of energy in my general direction, completely obliterating my _Terra Bulwark_ and sending massive chunks of rock, at a faster speed than normal, in a wide spray directly towards Xeno and his three remaining clones.

Xeno and his remaining clones managed to fend off the earlier flying stones, only to find themselves _instantly_ bombarded by my second wave of incoming rock. These rocks, the _smallest_ of which was the size of a bowling ball but weighed ten times more, all flew simultaneously and reached Xeno and his duplicates. His duplicates, tried as they might to either evade or redirect the mini-boulders, found out that they were unable to do so and disappeared when the rock passed through them before embedding themselves into the earth behind them, once gravity pulled them down.

Xeno Lucario himself, with his DOUBLE TEAM technique now nullified, saw these incoming rocks and attempted to form his PROTECT bulwark to evade damage, by placing both paws forward in such a way as though he had them placed on an imaginary wall. However, he couldn't defend quickly in time and found himself recoiling _far_ back and onto the floor when the incoming rocks stalwartly struck him in a few distinct areas: his front paws, his abdomen, and his lower jaw. In the process, his Aura Vision technique was disrupted outright and ceased altogether.

"(Oh wow…!)" Costas saw the upset that just occurred.

"(Eduardo actually struck him!)" Ian pondered in astonishment.

After the Orange (Melee) Aura dissipated from my right palm, I stared at my hand briefly, almost in disbelief at my actions.

"(I actually did it…)" I pondered to myself, unsure of what to think of my own actions. "(I struck Xeno in cold blood…)"

_(Song Ends)_

Xeno, when he landed on the floor, didn't _immediately_ get back upright on his feet. Rather than that, he felt the harsh force that my tandem techniques inflicted upon his body, and his body didn't respond positively to them. The rock that crashed into his palms narrowly broke a stubby digit or dislocated a wrist, but mostly left a hideous bruise that would make using his paws mildly uncomfortable with his repertoire of choice. The rock that collided into his abdomen left his diaphragm convulsing briefly, causing him to cough and gasp for air. And in doing that, he also spat out some blood and saliva from his mouth, because the final boulder that struck his lower jaw caused him to bite into his tongue with his sharp, canine-like teeth.

When he eventually got back up on his feet after regaining some of his lost composure, I noticed that there was blood and saliva dripping down his chin. And despite this, he proceeded over towards me, stopping within five feet of me, not with a look of martial intent on his bruised countenance, but with admiration instead.

"_Impressive,_" He said truthfully. "_In the face of a powerful adversary—even if that adversary is a friend—you _can_ strike with martial intent._"

As I expected of myself, I didn't like the admiration I was receiving for my choice of actions. I nodded to Xeno in confirmation of this fact, but not with welcoming acceptance of it.

Xeno inhaled sharply through his snout, feeling the bruising of his diaphragm intensify, but not succumbing to it. He spat out a wad of blood onto the floor that accumulated from his oral injury.

"_Well, with that truth of yours known now to me, I don't see much of a reason to prolong our sparring match._"

A mild wave of relief coursed through my body when I heard Xeno's words. "So, does this mean we should stop right here and call it a draw?"

Xeno, rather than agree with me, smiled devilishly, with his canine-like fangs made bare before me, a choice of action that quickly replaced my feeling of relaxation with that of trepidation.

"_Oh no,_" He responded with his toothy grin. "_I don't want our first sparring match to end as a stalemate where we both merely stop in our tracks and call it a day, satisfied with what we've learned about each other._"

I didn't want to ask his reason why, but I found myself doing so out of curiosity.

"How _do_ you want it to end then?"

His smile still didn't fade away from my field of vision. "_I want it to end as any Pokémon battle _should_ end, in the way that all Pokémon are _hard-wired_ to instinctively fight for. I want my first sparring match with you to end in a win-lose outcome._"

His tone of telepathic voice told me that he was serious.

"You should know that I'm not the type of person that fights for the sole purpose of victory."

"_That works just fine for me._"

Xeno's smile faded away from his face. And in its place, Xeno's piercing red eyes began to glimmer a bright white light, an indication that his psychic abilities were intensifying within them.

Upon seeing this, I felt a grave distortion of my sense of reality and presence. Merely by looking him square in the eyes, I found the landscape between us warping back and forth, my depth perception failing me and playing tricks with my mind. The colors of the scenery appeared to distort themselves before me as well. The greenery on the earth, the light blueness of the sky, and the dark blueness of Xeno, the shading of all of it was warping before me.

"What is this?" I asked, finding even my own voice twisting and knotting its tone unnaturally, echoing and shifting within my ears. I waved my hands in front of my face as well, noticing how their very momentum left traces of their afterimages within my field of sight. "What did you do?"

"_You are getting very sleepy…_" Xeno droned with his HYNOSIS technique in effect. "_Very sleepy…_"

A sudden feeling of heaviness overwhelmed me, and I could feel my eyelids closing down on me, my head arcing forward, and my body relaxing and becoming as still as a statue. "Hyp…no…sis…?" Was the only word that escaped my mouth before I fell asleep while standing upright.

Xeno, sensing my mind relaxing enough for him to know for certain that I've fallen into a deep sleep, negated the use of his psychic abilities, causing his eyes to return back to their crimson gleam norm.

Both Costas and Ian watched on at the situation, in somewhat disbelief at what they just saw Xeno do.

"Whoa…" Costas muttered under his breath.

"I didn't know Xeno could _do_ that…" Ian muttered under his breath.

"…Zzz…" My eyes were shut tight, my head tilted down, my body rocking back and forth in an unconscious feat at retaining physical equilibrium, and my being utterly vulnerable to Xeno's martial instincts.

Confident in himself that victory was within grasp, Xeno Lucario utilized his DOUBLE TEAM technique to duplicate himself into five total individuals. The four that he conjured through this method each utilized TELEPORT to warp from their Point A, to standing before me and surrounding me in the form of their Point B.

Each and every one of them rushed towards me, their left paws imbued with white energy, and drawn back before they made contact with my midsection, in the form of SKY UPPERCUT.

Their combined power through their uppercuts sent me soaring high into the air, and gyrating unnaturally with my limbs flailing all about, my being still fast asleep from Xeno's earlier use of HYPNOSIS.

Xeno, the original amongst the DOUBLE TEAM duplicates, ran over to where his four clones were placed. And upon reaching them, he had them all fling him high into the air, in hot pursuit of me, just before they all disappeared after their work was done. And as he was soaring upward, he oriented his body in mid-air so that he was upside-down, with one of his hind legs extended out, and brimming with his innate aura.

As I reached the apex of my vertical trajectory, gravity began to pull me back down. However, Xeno collided with me as he was ascending upward and kicked me a few times _forcefully_ with MEGA KICK. His hind foot, with his last sequential kick, came in direct contact of my lumbar spine, causing me to bend unnaturally and briefly at the point of impact before I continued to fly upward a few dozen feet _higher_ in the air.

Xeno, falling back down to earth now instead of me, channeled his aura to TELEPORT himself into a position higher than my own, so that he would intercept me in my flight pattern again. He warped spontaneously from one point in space to another, directly _above_ me, and faced me as I was rising up to him.

He clenched his left paw into a fist and focused deeply in delivering one punch to send me back down to earth, the entirety of his left paw shining bright with his aura, fueled with dense power and martial punishment.

Once again, as I reached the apex of my trajectory, Xeno was there to strike at me. And as he proved himself before to me with his attacks, he showed no mercy, no signs of restriction, and no remorse with his choice of actions.

He struck me, with MEGA PUNCH, directly onto the broadside of my head, causing a loud snap in the air when his fist collided with my forehead. The immediate force of impact caused me to come back down to earth, hard, falling _two hundred feet_ and leaving a crater in the process.

"(There, I believe that will suffice.)" Xeno pondered, satisfied with his pugilism, before using TELEKINESIS on himself to float back down to earth.

Both Costas and Ian, upon seeing the state of body that Xeno has left me in, rush over towards the two of us.

Xeno Lucario, upon inches of touching the grass on the earth below, disengaged his TELEKINESIS and landed gently on his two feet, within reach of me. And without resorting to using his Aura Vision technique, he examines my present condition, of which he is entirely responsible for.

Before his eyes, I reside face-up on the crater of dirt that I formed with my crash landing. My body was completely unfolded before the dirt, as though I were taking an afternoon nap. My clothing showed a blatantly noticeable light shade of brown—from the dirt that I moved aside when I dug underground—alongside a few scattered blotches of coagulated blood—from Xeno punching me in the sternum a few times. Alongside this, my body itself was considerably bruised, across most areas of my body, from Xeno's relentlessness in combat.

The injury that was most noticeable was the one that Xeno left directly on the center of my forehead, with a punch that he placed enough force into to lacerate the epidermal layer of my skin and cause a mild amount of blood to seep out of the bruising.

"(What a pity,)" Xeno pondered with disappointment extolled on his face. "(Even though you eventually brought in upon yourself to attack someone that you've instantly acknowledged as a fellow comrade, you were _still_ holding back against me during our sparring match. I didn't even feel myself exerting myself during our clash.)"

Xeno recalled seeing my Elemental Aura power firsthand, when I rescued him from Nero's shackles and when I flew back to Costas and Ian, with him mounted on my back, flying at Mach 3. Also, he recalled the earliest use of my Elemental Aura abilities _before_ our sparring match, where I surrounded myself in a cocoon of aura that showed twelve different colors intertwined and revolving around me, which I used to downgrade from a draconic state of human state.

"(The power I sensed emanating from you earlier was much greater than what you were demonstrating now. Also, you weren't even using that many of your self-named 'Elemental Aura' abilities. From what I could track, I only sensed you use three, where you expressed physical power with orange aura, mental power with purple aura, and earthbound power with brown aura.)"

Xeno sighed and shook his head in disappointment, but looked at the bigger picture.

"(I was eager—_ecstatic_, even—to see your power first-hand during our first sparring match, however I made the choice of ending this match and succeeding in doing so, because I sought victory after seeing a fraction of your power. Thankfully, there will be many more sparring matches after this one, where I can see your power and learn to train myself against it to the best of my ability, and vice versa from your perspective. And even though we both made _significant_ progress with our first sparring match, there's plenty of room for improvement between the two of us as time goes on.)"

Xeno pondered for a moment in an area of my persona where I could improve on.

"(I believe that the biggest room for improvement in your case is to develop a sense of victory, or at least a reliable motivational drive that helps bring out the most of yourself within battle against me.)"

Costas and Ian reached Xeno's side and looked at the state of body that he left me in from a much closer viewpoint.

"My God…" Ian was virtually speechless at the outcome of this match.

"What did you _do_ to him…?" Costas inquired the Aura Pokémon, with a tone of voice that evenly blended both curiosity and mild anger.

"_If you think I _crippled_ him, you're wrong,_" Xeno assured them. "_All I did was rendered him unconscious while he was immobilized by a forced, implied state of slumber._"

The uneasiness that both of my brothers possessed began to melt away.

"_Of course, Eduardo wouldn't have had this final outcome in our first sparring match if he had displayed more of his power at _first_ rather than later. If he had made himself a bit more…_even_ against me, one user of aura dexterously fighting against another user of aura, without any hindrances over the well-being of the opponent, then our sparring match would've been much more fulfilling._"

Xeno looks at me, sensing that my aura and being have quelled after his final blow dealt upon me.

"_Call it._" He uttered to both of my brothers.

"Um…" Costas seemed hesitant to do so, but agreed to this nevertheless. "…Okay."

"The winner…" Ian declared his verdict, "…of this sparring match…is—"

"_Wait!_" Xeno stopped him before he could finish. "_He's stirring._"

Before the six eyes of my onlookers, I began to awaken from my comatose state of body and slowly get back upright on my feet. In the entire process of doing so, I never open my eyes to look at Costas, Ian, or Xeno. I just keep them closed, with a melancholy countenance inches below them, my body facing Xeno. If anything, the three of them weren't directing their attention to my face. They were simply listening to my bones click loudly back into place with my every movement, my skeletal structure having rattled somewhat from my fall.

In seeing that I'm alright—for the most part—and back on my feet, Xeno felt it appropriate to converse with me.

"_Are you alright, Eduardo?_"

"…" Complete silence in my part.

"_I didn't hurt you _too_ badly, did I? No broken bones or severe hemorrhaging?_"

"…" Not a word escaped from my mouth, nothing but air entering and leaving my nostrils as I breathed tranquilly.

"_Will you take your loss on our first sparring match lightly, or will you reflect on it to see where you need to improve upon?_"

"…" His inquiry this time _did_ receive a response in my part. My right eye—the only one of the two that _isn't_ concealed by my eye patch—opened and stared hollowly into his eyes. However, my eye, rather than being ash-black in its iris and white in its sclera, was now entirely _sanguine_ instead of white, my ash-black iris still remaining intact.

Xeno saw my red eye and believe he knew how it came to be.

"_Oh, I _did_ injure you much more seriously than I thought. The great fall that you endured must've ruptured a blood vessel within your—_"

Xeno was _instantly_ silenced when he felt a punch strike him square in the nose. The impact was brief, lasting only a split-second. But during that narrow time-frame, Xeno could feel his snout and upper half of his face compress _inward_, from the attack pressing into his face. He could feel the skeletal structure of his face warp inward, narrowly to breaking point, were it not for the fact that he flew back about fifteen feet after the sucker punch.

Both Costas and Ian knew that I was the one that punched Xeno square in his snout. But what they couldn't believe was how _fast_ I had done so. Before their eyes, they didn't even see me move, they didn't even see me lift my arm or coil my hand before launching a forceful punch that knocked Xeno onto his back and skidding on the earth.

Xeno Lucario, immediately after he stopped sliding backwards, curled his upper body off of the dirt and instinctively clutched his face, groaning loudly in pain from the hideous feeling of having his nose warp abnormally.

"(What in Arceus's name was that?!)" Xeno pondered in alarm when he saw his paws drenched in blood from his snout. "(That punch…I didn't even _see_ it coming!)"

Xeno, shaken somewhat by the sudden attack that he _knew_ came from me, stood back upright, disregarding the blood that was now dripping down his nostrils and running down the back of his throat.

"_Eduardo! You fail to understand!"_ Xeno shouted at me now, with a bit of rage settling into his tone of mental voice. "_This sparring match is over! Enough is enough! Your brothers were about to name me as the winner! I won and you—!_"

My inner aura bursts forth from my body so quickly and in such massive quantities that it snaps the air around me, silencing Xeno's last words with a forceful shockwave and causing a tremendous gale to howl across his ears, alongside those of both Costas and Ian, moments before the three of them were cast aside by the force alone.

The aura _itself_ that I was emanating took the exact same form that I normally utilize to transmogrify—the twelve diverse Elemental Aura settings that I presently know. But rather than engulf me in an Elemental Aura cocoon, it escaped from me with force great enough to _crater_ the earth around me within a _fifteen foot radius_, obliterating the grass and dirt that surrounded me within that circular zone.

My entire wardrobe fluttered under the turbulence of my power, but remained firm on my body—my sports jacket/pants combination, my shoes, and the entirety of my "S-Rank" inventions—due to their material superiority. My eye patch however, couldn't even _hope_ to cope with my power, and was torn apart before being cast off into the wind, exposing the sanguine blankness that my left eye now inhabited alongside my right eye. And despite the 1% Auracite lacing over the fabric, it became the equivalent of dust when the primary fabric burned away.

_A Crisis After Another/Naruto Original Soundtrack III/Toshiro Masuda_

_(Song Begins)_

Both Costas and Ian are effortlessly flung back by the force that my Elemental Aura was dispersing at. They are unable to stop tumbling back until they are a full one-hundred feet away from my position. And even then, they are unable to stand up without losing their balance again from the stalwart gusts that I was producing all around my core. The most they could do was remain prone, the bellies of their bodies lying flat on the grassy earth, their arms shielding their eyes from the dirt debris that I was unearthing.

Xeno, being exponentially much stronger than my brothers, fared much better in regaining his balance and standing upright against my erupting power after sliding and tumbling a full fifty feet away from me. When he came back upright, his first instincts were to completely protect his eyes with his arms, closing his eyelids in the process as well. And thankfully, because of his versatile Aura Vision ability—which he activated just now—, he was still able to see me, in all of my power that I made dazzlingly known to him.

"(This is what Eduardo is capable of?!)" Xeno pondered, having an easier time to _visualize_ the words he was thinking rather than _listening_ to them within his mind, because the strong gales that I was generating with my power were deafening as they entered and bent back his hollow ears. "(This raw power of his, it's insane! No human is capable of this, not even those that have trained themselves to _wield_ aura!)"

Without so much as taking into account the presence of my three friends, my power spiked even higher off the scale, when I tilted my head high into the air and roared, with enough strength to comfortably place itself second to my draconic roar. The aura field that I was emanating stretched farther from my body—a full six feet from any given point—, and the unforgiving nor'easter I was blasting away at them only grew in intensity, rivaling that of a concentrated hurricane.

Both Costas and Ian could only hunker down into the earth at this point, hunker down as flat as they can physically make themselves, or else be carried away even further, and risk injury.

Xeno, despite his stronger body frame and his rigid posture, found himself sliding back ever so slightly, inch by inch, the windstorm that I was generating proving strong enough to keep him at bay from me.

"_Eduardo! Can you hear me?!_" Xeno shouted with his telepathy, hoping to strike some sense in me. "_Cease and desist at once, before you blow your brothers away!_"

As if I was listening to him, the gale that I was conjuring gradually subsided, not instantly but slowly. My twelve-color aura field also subsided down somewhat, but didn't disappear altogether, merely cutting down to half its original range outward from my body. My bright sanguine eyes remained firmly locked on Xeno, glaring intensely with primal lust for battle.

Xeno, with his Aura Vision ability already trained on me, analyzes my present being and comes to a startling conclusion.

"_You're not even _conscious_ right now, and yet you're on your feet and brandishing your aura before me._"

Before Xeno's acute eyes he could see something stirring within my Elemental Aura. He sees the aura field surrounding me begin to take a certain shape, as though it were amorphous and molding itself. He sees that my aura field is taking the shape of a dragon. Broad and imposing wings formed on my back. A long and whip-like tail shaped itself and stretched outward from my rear. Razor-sharp, clawed hands formed on the outlining of my own. Bird-like talons formed all around my shoes. And thick, bull-like horns jetted out of my forehead, facing forward with intimidating sharpness and impalement potential.

This was all easily noticeable by Costas and Ian, as well as Xeno under normal circumstances. However, underneath the surface of my power—which only Xeno can visualize with his Aura Vision ability—, there was far more chaos brewing.

Before Xeno's golden eyes, he noticed a shape forming from the aura that I was emanating. He sees something that he immediately compares to my earlier dragon form, but with noticeable differences. Firstly, the dragon he was seeing within me appeared to have a much thicker body density, practically _twice_ that of the white-scaled dragon that I can become at will. Also, this dragon, unlike the white-scaled dragon that I can transmogrify into, possessed two imposing, forward-facing horns that suggested a demonic figure.

All of it, before Xeno's eyes and within my aura field, appeared virtually invisible and difficult to identify in better detail aside from its outline.

"(What the hell is that?)" Xeno said, never seeing anything like this out of anybody's aura that he's sensed before.

All of a sudden, before Xeno's eyes, the dragon silhouette that he sees within my aura seems to take notice that it's being watched by the Aura Pokémon, and roars loudly at him.

Much to Xeno's surprise, the roar was powerful and surprising enough that it frightened him, and _literally_ disrupted his concentration on the use of his Aura Vision ability, causing it to stop altogether.

With my power now manifested in this twelve-colored Aura Dragon Cloak that I was now brandishing brilliantly, I placed myself on all fours limbs rather than on two feet. My piercing red eyes never faltered from Xeno, and were just as focused on him as my aura-based horns that I now possessed. My broad, aura-based wings tucked closely inward towards my body, in a posture that suggested aggressiveness and pugilism, entirely void of any sense of reasoning. My aura-based tail waved left and right, rhythmically, much like that of a feline hunter in the African Savannah, stalking its next victim.

Xeno knew now that his words would just enter deaf ears, and that the only thing that he could do now, in order to stop me, was follow my lead and fight.

"_Even though I don't completely understand what's happening with you at this moment, I only know this._"

"…" I continued to stare on at Xeno, never faltering from my gaze upon him for a second, my body euphoric for battle, as was evident by my flaring power.

Xeno forms a battle stance and continues speaking to me, with a serious facial expression rather than a joyful one. "_I'll see your power first-hand after all…even though I'm beginning to find myself wishing otherwise._"

"…" I smile maliciously at seeing him ready for battle.

_(Song Ends)_

* * *

"There is no teacher but the enemy. No one but the enemy will tell you what the enemy is going to do. No one but the enemy will ever teach you how to destroy and conquer. Only the enemy shows you where you are weak. Only the enemy tells you where he is strong. And the rules of the game are what you can do to him and what you can stop him from doing to you." —Orson Scott Card (262-263) ("_Ender's Game_")

* * *

Quite a strong start to the beginning of my sequel FanFic, if I do say so myself, don't you think? Because, through my first FanFic, I learned that it's often the first chapters of a FanFic that people look at the most. So if those first chapters are properly done and intrigue the readers into reading on, then the following chapters benefit from that as well.

Before this is mentioned, I know that it's bizarre to put up a picture of some clothing as the cover picture to my sequel FanFic. I intend to change it when I find something more fitting as the story progresses. If anything, I selected that picture so that you know what Eduardo's new wardrobe is, kind of like how my profile picture is supposed to be what Eduardo's dragon form looks like.

Lastly, you may be wondering who the two characters conversing at the start of the chapter are. While I encourage you to begin to speculate. I won't spoil who they are as of yet. You may confirm who _one_ of the two characters are (I'm not really trying to shroud the telepathic speaker). As for the second one, not for a good while.

And with that, the next time we meet will be during the middle of July, where I have the thrilling second half to this chapter (which I stated before in my profile that I had to divide THIS chapter into two halves, due to its near 50,000 word count!) put up. You may still recall my recent poll, and if you've yet to vote in it, please do so, before I replace it in my next update and give away the results.

I hope "The Path of the Aura II: Brothers in Arms" lives up to your expectations of me, and perhaps even _exalts_ them.


	3. Chapter XX (20)

Hit Count for "The Path of the Aura: Intertwining Crossroads": 5,409

Hit Count for "The Path of the Aura II: Brothers in Arms": 35

Total Hit Count: 5,444

...

...

...Huh...That's interesting.

Even though my first FanFic is older than my sequel FanFic, it actually received _more_ hits than it. At first, I wondered why, but then I quickly remembered my origins on this website.

When "The Path of the Aura: Intertwining Crossroads" was first uploaded with only a couple of chapters to its budding name, it had a similar hit count. But as time (and content) progressed, the overall reception to my first FanFic grew, easily becoming something that I'm quite proud of for working and dedicating my time to, something that will reside comfortably within this website for time eternal, for curious readers to take a moment of their time to read and enjoy.

My sequel has a lot to live up to, if I ever want it to be just as well accepted as my first FanFic.

...I have no pressure. And I can say that based on my growing experience as a FanFic author, the time I've willingly invested into this hobby, and the passion I have in creating a legacy for myself, something that cements my username "GameManiac" to this website, amongst thousands of other great FanFic authors on this website.

So, without further ado, I bring you the second half of the Eduardo vs. Xeno Lucario "sparring match", what I was forced to divide from "Chapter XIX (19)" due to the potential 50,000+ word count it would've possessed.

And when you read on at the entirety of this chapter, at one of the few _longest_ chapters that I've written, you might just conclude that it's my most action-heavy chapter yet.

If anything though, you might just conclude that this is my most _song_-heavy chapter yet. What was originally 4 songs referenced and utilized in the second half of "Chapter XIX (19)" (but is now "Chapter XX (20)"), has now become a total of 13, after I proofread this chapter.

And one of those thirteen songs is particularly special for this situation.

You'll soon read on and understand why.

* * *

**Chapter XX (20): Aura vs. Bulwark (Part II (2))**

Location: ?

Date: ?

Time: ?

_Rinzler Recompiled/Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance Original Soundtrack DISC 2/Yoko Shimomura_

_(Song Begins)_

"This is…unbelievable!"

"_What is?_"

"It's Eduardo's inner strength! It seems to have taken on a mind of its own, and is now acting out on its own free will!"

"_You act as though it's the end of the world._"

"For Lucario, it is the end of the world! What you said earlier about Eduardo having to let go of his personal attachment to his friends has come true! Now Eduardo's going to tear Xeno apart, limb from limb! He's going to _kill_ the Pokémon of Prophecy!"

"_Nonsense, you're overreacting to this present situation._"

"What are You talking about?! You can see the situation for _Yourself,_ can't You?! Eduardo is now heavily fortified by that…that…Aura Dragon Cloak! And Xeno Lucario is—!"

"_Xeno Lucario is _more_ than capable of combating against Eduardo. You're merely accepting the fact that Eduardo's instincts flaring forth can prove life-threatening to the Pokémon of Prophecy._"

"…How can You act so calm about this present situation?"

"_I've explained this to you before, and I'll repeat myself to remind you, my friend. Both the Man of Bulwark and the Pokémon of Prophecy are, overall, quite even in their powers. What just occurred for Eduardo was a temporary removal of his close affection towards Xeno. Now he'll fight the Aura Pokémon without holding anything back, attacking Xeno Lucario with virtually everything that he has within his arsenal. And as long as Xeno Lucario doesn't back down and matches Eduardo's power with its _own_ power, this one-on-one sparring match will prove to be beneficial to the both of them. And in the long run, this will greatly aid Eduardo's adopted brothers as well, when it is time for them to learn how to brandish their aura, because it'll mean that their teachers are still able to continue to grow and teach them what they know._"

"But…aren't You worried at all that they'll kill each other?"

"_They lack the power to kill each other outright. It would take a foolish mistake in either of their parts, a complete or _willing_ lapse in concentration, or a full acceptance of in-battle pacifism for their lives to unexpectedly end. In other words, much like breaking a lifelong habit or routine, it's virtually impossible for them to fall in their own battle, because of both of their acquired experience in combat._"

"Okay… But I still worry for Xeno's overall wellbeing. I still can't help but contemplate Xeno dying under Eduardo's hand, whether he wishes to kill Xeno or not."

"_I don't blame you._"

"I hope I can still stomach down this popcorn as I watch."

"_...Do you think I can have some?_"

"Yes, but I thought you said you don't have a mouth."

"_That doesn't mean that I can't eat._"

_(Song Ends)_

* * *

_28.1: Come Forth, the Aura Dragon! Eduardo [Aura Dragon Cloak] vs. Xeno Lucario (Part IV (4))_

Time: 3:21 PM

_Rage Awakened/Kingdom Hearts Original Soundtrack Complete - CD9 - Kingdom Hearts Final Mix Bonus Disc/Yoko Shimomura_

_(Song Begins)_

With zero warning, I rise from my quadruped posture to a hunched bipedal posture and charged straight at Xeno.

Seeing this, Xeno braced himself for the distance between us that would be closed.

However, before Xeno's eyes, as I was running straight at him, I disappeared from his view _entirely_, Aura Dragon Cloak and all, only kicking up a small amount of dirt in the process.

Xeno, much to his surprise, found it greatly astonishing that I could move so fast that not even _he_ could keep his eyes locked onto me. He swiveled his eyes around his surroundings, seeing where I had moved myself towards in the blink of an eye.

And when he noticed my presence materialize directly _below_ him, he only has enough time to look down before I place a high kick directly onto his chin, abruptly shifting his head upward. The force of impact in itself proved greater than what he managed to inflict upon me earlier with his quartet SKY UPPERCUT technique, and lifted him effortlessly off of his feet, sending him flying high into the air.

Xeno could feel a sickening feeling of having his neck tweak against his better control, and could feel blood running inside his mouth and escaping out of it as he rocketed upward.

Still on the ground, I lock my eyes on Xeno, flap my aura-based wings against the force of gravity, and take flight in pursuit of him. The sheer power of each flap of my wings caused the surface layer of both dirt and grass to unearth and fly far away from me, for only an instant. And after that, the wind itself was cleaved in two as I cut through it with my Aura Dragon Cloak.

Xeno regains his senses in mid-air to notice me coming towards him alarmingly fast. He reactivates his Aura Vision ability, and sees the same dragon silhouette that roared at him that caused his nullification of his Aura Vision ability earlier.

Thankfully, compared to before, he was only _mostly_ astonished at seeing such a demonic draconic outline a second time, and holds firm against it.

Inevitably, both Xeno and I meet in mid-air, and begin to throw a flurry of punches and kicks against each other. Xeno's speed at striking was great, but he found himself surprised by the fact that I could not only keep up with him, but _exceed_ him as well. It wasn't long before he found himself forced to act defensively against me, his Aura Vision ability allowing him to see my actions as they arrive, but his body growing more and more unable to keep up with what his mind foresaw, what was demanded out of his present physical condition.

Until eventually, he found himself unable to defend himself against my greater speed and felt the full force of power inflicted upon him.

With my two hands clasped together, I brought them both down onto the crown of Xeno's skull, causing him to lean forward in mid-air, utterly stunned. Then, with his head lowered and in closer proximity to my lower body, I struck my right knee into the center of his mandible, rendering him utterly immobile. Finally, with my aura-based tail, I coil it a few times around his neck and shoulders, front-flip a few times in mid-air with great speed, causing him to revolve around me against his will. Then, after disorienting him further, I let him go, and send his body plummeting back down to Earth, where he cratered the dirt and caused a dust cloud to envelop his point of impact.

A few seconds passed where I watched, from above, this dust cloud puff outward and shield his actual presence from my eyes. And upon considering the fact that he hadn't moved from his impact site, I abused this fact by orienting myself upside down and plummeting back down to terra firma, landing and disappearing within the center of the dust cloud, and directly on top of Xeno Lucario _in theory_. The force of impact of my landing caused the earth itself to tremble somewhat, from the sheer power that I was emanating throughout my body.

Once within the dust cloud, a few flaps of my broad, aura-based wings were all it took for me to better inspect the full situation.

I stood directly on top of Xeno Lucario, whom was fitted forcefully within his own crater, his back to the dirt and his belly to the sky. My foot—a dragon's clawed foot enveloping over my monochrome shoe—was firmly placed directly over his neck and upper torso, his chest-spike having no penetration power whatsoever on me.

In fact, it was just the opposite. His chest-spike actually gave in and _crushed_ his sternum, which resulted in a cadaverous, blood-soused look on Xeno's countenance that suggested his heart and lungs were ruptured like water balloons.

However, before I take this in as certain fact, Xeno Lucario's body became enveloped in a veil of light before dematerializing altogether and _disappearing_ from directly below my feet. And in his place within the crater that his body used to inhabit was a hole in the earth, freshly dug, wide enough for him to burrow into.

During the seconds that he was shrouded from my view, Xeno Lucario conjured a SUBSTITUTE to take the fall for him, and then he escaped by using DIG, to evade the possibility—which was now a certainty—of me landing directly on top of him.

The only question is where exactly he disappeared off to?

Mercilessly, I stared into the hole that Xeno dug, and conjured the Red (Fire) Aura of my twelve-color Aura Dragon Cloak within the area just in front of my mouth. I inhaled sharply, concentrating combustible energy in the process. And when I exhaled, the words "(..._Pyro Flamethrower..._!)" echoed hollowly within my mind, with a powerful stream of fire shooting out and in front of my mouth.

Effortlessly, my technique entered straight and true into the hole that Xeno dug, likely to roast him alive within the tellurian darkness that he chose for himself.

Never for a second did I stop breathing fire into Xeno's escape hole. And because of that, the temperature of the vicinity surrounding me elevated considerably. Some of the plants surrounding me, when the temperature of the earth below quickly reached the surface, cause them to spontaneously combust, briefly, before they became nothing more than a pile of ash. And in certain locations, the energy of the fire _itself_ was too great for the earth to contain, and burst forth from the earth and to the surface, in the form of a few fire pillars that rose a few dozen feet into the air.

After a full minute of using this technique, I stopped, with the thought that Xeno was given an earthbound taste of hellfire, perishing dozens of feet into the earth, flesh and one roasted away into ash in an instant. A faint smile formed on my face at this grim thought.

"_Eduardo!_"

And then that smile turned into a disappointed snarl when I turned my body to face the source of that voice.

Before my eyes, I see Xeno Lucario, approximately fifteen feet away from me, brandishing a _massive_ hammer that he fabricated with his innate aura, made just as dense as the aura bones that he wielded against me with his earlier BONE RUSH technique.

Unfortunately for me, by the time I noticed his presence and made enough sense of his WOOD HAMMER technique, it was too late. He had already wielded the hammer mid-swing against me, and the only thing that I could do was take the blow full force.

The force of impact of his WOOD HAMMER technique, for the split second that it collided with the right side of my body, caused my body to coil unnaturally around the head of the aura hammer that Xeno swung at me, effortlessly breaking the humerus, radius, and ulna bones my right arm in multiple areas, and causing my ribcage and spine to warp unnaturally, narrowly close to their breaking point. And directly after this collision, I effectively became a baseball and flew far away from him, high into the air, before landing harshly a few hundred feet away, dazed and broken.

_(Song Ends)_

Still holding onto his manufactured WOOD HAMMER, he sees my graceless landing and can't help but ponder at the grand slam he just gained from his flawless attack upon me. However, that smile quickly fades away when he feels the sharp recoil damage of his powerful attack seep into his body.

…Or to be more precise, his left and right arms.

The sudden pain that shot into the nerves on his arms forced him to drop his WOOD HAMMER technique, which landed _surprisingly_ with a loud, trembling thud on the earth below, before dispersing and disappearing altogether into the air around itself.

Xeno stared into the paws of his arms, finding them trembling unnaturally from the intense pain within them. His teeth gritted at the severity of his recoil damage, but he endured the pain and expected this.

"(I can't believe I had to resort to one of those double-edged recoil techniques…)" Xeno pondered, not moving his paws in the least, not even so much as flexing a digit, because the neurological pain would just sear up in intensity if he did so.

Instead, he just stared at my body in the distance with his artificial golden eyes.

"(Though I'll admit that, with these types of techniques, despite the great recoil damage castigated upon the user, it _pales_ in comparison to the damage that the target succumbs to.)"

He hoped that my aura had diminished into normal levels after having sustained the near physical equivalent of a bullet train collision. But to his astonishment and disappointment, he can sense that my aura hasn't dropped at all. In fact, he notices that it hasn't even dropped a notch. It's still flaring intensely from the Aura Dragon Cloak surrounding me, and will only flare ever _more_ stalwartly when I inevitably retaliate against him, with bitter vindication for what I'm instinctively considering to be a heavy-hitting sucker punch.

Case in point, he notices that I get back up on my feet, but I only use my left arm and aura-based tail for rigidity support, because my right arm was hideously fractured by his earlier WOOD HAMMER technique.

_A Tough Struggle/Dragon Ball Kai: Original Soundtrack/Kenji Yamamoto_

_(Song Begins)_

I still stare on at him as sharply as ever, my gleaming red eyes instantly noticeable through Xeno's Aura Vision ability.

However, my gaze upon him wanders off when I notice the condition that he left my right arm in. And, despite my present state of mind, where I'm simultaneously unconscious yet instinctively and unmistakably _hostile_, deep down within myself, I understand that an injury like this would prove to be an encumbrance on me rather than an asset. So, I decide to tend to my injury before continuing my assault on Xeno.

However, the exact _method_ of which I choose to do so leaves my spectators—Costas, Ian, and Xeno—in utter astonishment at my choice of actions.

Because, rather than simply using the Green (Healing) Aura aspect of my Aura Dragon Cloak to repair the damage that Xeno delivered upon my serpentine arm, I decided to take a more…barbaric approach.

With my left arm, I grab my right arm—a few inches from the base of my right shoulder—and _mutilate_ my right arm clean off of its foundation, with bone, clothing, and flesh in one fell move. And seconds afterward, the dangerous twelve-colored aura surrounding my severed right arm was extinguished and disappeared altogether.

"Oh…" Costas couldn't believe his eyes.

"…my…" Ian could barely contain his disgust, as well as his breakfast.

"…_Arceus…!_" Xeno could feel a sharp chill run down his spine, causing him to shudder.

Unsurprisingly, because I severed a major artery within my right arm, there was an immediate response by my bloodstream to this new, self-inflicted maiming of my body, in the form of squirting hemorrhaging, which landed on the grass below and painted it crimson.

Despite this, to the observant eyes of Xeno Lucario and my brothers, I didn't appear the _least_ bit concerned over this potentially life-threatening injury. I simply stared on at the compound fractured, bone protruding, blood-soused wreckage of a right arm that I still held onto, before choosing to set it ablaze with a brief but brilliant instance of Red (Fire) Aura.

The last thing that I choose to do with this arm is cast it away by casually throwing it behind my back, where it landed on the dirt, submitting to the ravenous scarlet flames before they themselves perished after swallowing bone, fabric, and flesh whole.

Both of my brothers sweated nervously at the fact that I could just remove an arm so effortlessly and with the least amount of pain expressed on my countenance.

Xeno however, could sense that the most interesting aspect of my choice of action was yet to come, and didn't necessarily know how to brace for it.

"(…_Bio Regeneration_…!)"

I had two words bounce hollowly within my unconscious mind before the Green (Healing) Aura portion of my Aura Dragon Cloak completely enveloped my right shoulder, what remained of the butchered stub of my right arm.

Much to the shock of _everybody_, my right arm began to _renew_ as it once originally was, with terrifying speed that was easily perceptible to the naked eye, alongside Xeno's auric eyes. What was once a wound spurting blood onto the earth was now a growing mass of regenerating bones, tendons, ligaments, nerves, blood vessels, muscles, and epidural skin. What was once a mutilation feeding sanguine life to the plants beside my feet was now an upper arm, an elbow, a lower arm, a wrist, a palm, and five dexterous and manipulative digits, all of it immediately enveloped within my present Aura Dragon Cloak.

_(Song Ends)_

"Mother…"

"…of…"

"_…Arceus…!_"

The facial expressions of Costas, Ian, and Xeno Lucario were kept from falling onto the floor by their grappling skin and unyielding facial muscles.

Xeno however, seeing how I had regenerated with proficiency, knew that I wasn't held back by a physical defect anymore, and quickly proceeded to RECOVER as much energy as possible by drawing in the surrounding aura.

With my right arm now fully restored and functional—albeit no longer concealed by the right sleeve of my monochrome sports jacket—I stretch it and revolved it around my right shoulder a few times, examining it thoroughly in the process, to make sure there aren't any imperfections in this new limb.

Xeno Lucario, using RECOVER above and beyond normal limits, fully recharges himself and begins to have his entire body flare with excess aura. With this much power now at his disposal, he feels comfortable in dispersing it to a large extent, without running the risk of draining himself to a dangerously low level.

Through DOUBLE TEAM, he creates ninety-nine duplicates of himself, all of which amount to _one-hundred_ when the original Xeno Lucario is accounted for.

**Number of Xeno DOUBLE TEAM duplicates remaining: 99**

With my right arm now completely examined and free of any flaws that my anterior right arm acquired, I take note of Xeno's numerical advantage over me and glare vehemently at the Aura Pokémon army that I was now confronted with. With my instincts for battle flaring as vehemently as my Aura Dragon Cloak, I rush towards the legion of one-hundred Xeno Lucario, not in the least intimidated by his numbers, and more than willing to tear each and every Aura Pokémon apart, much like I did with my own arm earlier.

_Unforgettable/Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep & 358/2 Days OST/Yoko Shimomura_

_(Song Begins)_

Each and every Xeno Lucario activated their Aura Vision ability in response to my being approaching them, two-hundred soul-piercing golden eyes in total locked on at two fear-inducing sanguine eyes. They all ran in unison towards me, in conjunction with my present action.

As expected, we both collided when we charged into each other. Immediately, I found myself surrounded by their sheer numbers, and I was clashing with each and every one of them as they were doing so with me, having to swerve almost frequently to retaliate against them all.

The only problem that I was facing against Xeno was the fact that, unlike any common Roman soldier that encompassed the tactic of "strength with numbers", he actually employed that tactic with aplomb, with strength that Romans do not and never will possess. Romans are, to me, frail human beings that can't hold a candle to my gale of power, and are immediately smothered by it, and only if they get in my way or prove a threat to the well being of those that I love.

Xeno however was quite the opposite, and it was clear why.

Earlier in our sparring match—though it can no longer be called that at this stage—, Xeno proved himself to be capable of matching me, even _exceeding_ me at times, with his strength. And now that there was _one-hundred_ Xeno Lucario to face rather than just one, I found myself quickly besieged by their strength and numbers. Their dexterity for combat was just as sharp as well, sharper than that of most humans, including those of soldiers. And with their numbers, alongside their superior agility, they could cover more ground as a group rather than individually.

An example of this is that as I clashed with one or two Aura Pokémon in unison, one would always be directly behind me, strike at me, and move away before I could swat at him with my wings or tail. And they would always do this because their numbers were greater than mine, and were overwhelming me.

If things kept going this way, they would wear me down before I had a chance to dwindle Xeno's numbers to a bearable amount.

I had to get them away from me and move to a better position where I can handle their greater numbers with relative ease. But to do so, I had to make an opening amongst them.

So when one Lucario threw a punch at me, I caught him by the paw with one hand. And as expected, there was another Xeno behind me, waiting to strike at my backside as well. Only when he attempted to do so, did I coil my aura-based tail hastily around his punching arm, impeding his attack and keeping him subdued.

And then, with two Xeno clones subdued under my power, I began to spin around my center, without warning and instantaneously.

For the most part, all of the clones saw my motive behind this—through their Aura Vision ability—and stepped far back to avoid a collision with me or the two Xeno clones that were spinning alongside me. However, the ones that were closest to me, which was only a couple of them, couldn't get away in time and disappeared when the Xeno clones that I was holding collided with them when centripetal force made them fully horizontal. They then dissipated into a puff of smoke after colliding with a Xeno clone, and I stop spinning altogether.

**Number of Xeno DOUBLE TEAM duplicates remaining: 95**

With the remaining Xeno clones having stepped back from me, I leaped high into the air by using my legs to jump and my aura-based wings to keep me airborne. In the process, I glided well over their heads, landed away from the throng of Aura Pokémon, and make a tactical retreating dash away from them.

Surprisingly, only about twenty Xeno clones come my way, running after me. They weren't closing in on me with EXTREMESPEED though. They were just running in my general direction, not approaching me, but not being left behind in my dust either.

The reason why was simple when the eyes of those twenty Xeno clones began to emanate psychic energy.

As I was running away from the Xeno clones, I quickly realized that my feet no longer touched the ground, and I was now running on air, albeit not moving forward at all. Unfortunately, that sensation of air-walking didn't last too long for me though, because my muscles eventually seized up altogether, completely against my better self-control.

The twenty Xeno clones closed the distance between them and I, and never disengaged their TELEKINESIS on me, knowing well enough what I was capable of when unrestrained.

Now completely at their mercy, they maneuver me away from the grassy land and directly over the Red Sea, following closely behind me in the process, preferring to have their psychic range on me in close proximity, not willing to take a risk on me. I try to break away from their telekinetic grip on me, even employing my Purple (Psychic) Aura in the process in an effort to disrupt their psychic power over me with my own. However, it was all in vain, because despite my power, the psychic power of twenty Xeno Lucario proved more potent than the Purple (Psychic) Aura of one Eduardo.

By no means were they gentle with me when they immersed me within the Red Sea, and simply made me splash down within that massive body of water. The twenty Xeno clones all stood by the shore of the Red Sea, but by no means were they just going to stand idle while their TELEKINESIS forced me to remain in the water. They intended to follow me in the water as well, and they employed an ingenious use of a basic Water-Type technique in the process.

With their psychic abilities, they individually made a bubble form on the surface of the Red Sea, large enough for their heads to fit inside, dense enough to not pop spontaneously, and hollow inside with nothing but fresh air.

With this resourceful use of BUBBLE, they had their individual water spheres rise from the Red Sea and engulf their entire heads. Then, they all used DIVE in order to follow me within the water, never loosening their TELEKINESIS on me for even a split-second.

They quickly swam down towards me, where I was a few dozen feet below the water's surface, never struggling to breathe because they had enough oxygen within their little BUBBLEs to last them enough time.

I on the other hand, held my breath just before being forced into the Red Sea. But I didn't have the luxury of being able to breathe underwater like Xeno's clones did, _entirely_ because I was restrained by their accumulated psychic power, deliberately as it seemed.

"_This is for your own good,_" The Xeno duplicates told me in unison, though their voice came to me like the ripples of a wave, and undulated abnormally than they normally do in the air.

Not that it mattered to me, since I was beyond understanding at this point.

Within my baser instincts of my present mental condition, the possibility that I would drown to death overwhelmed my cerebral cortex. And even though it wasn't in Xeno's best interests to cause my death—rather to pass me out in an attempt to calm myself to a more stable state—I didn't exactly agree to comply with his actions. I truly believed in the idea that Xeno was trying to kill me, by submerging me within the Red Sea, immobilizing me with his TELEKINESIS, waiting for me to run out of oxygen—which would be within a fraction of the time that he and his DOUBLE TEAM doppelgangers had within his BUBBLE—, and infinitely more whenever they resurfaced.

Within me, my survival instincts flared, giving me strength against the telekinetic shackles that the Aura Pokémon's replicas placed upon me.

Seeing that I was actually shifting within his TELEKINESIS restraint upon me, Xeno attempted to restrain myself even harder in order to keep me underwater until I passed out. However, try as he might, my building power and survival instincts proved too much for his mental powers to smother, and he was finding himself losing control, his mental chains and shackles surrounding me breaking apart under my growing power.

It was taking so much of a strain on Xeno's doppelgangers' minds that the pressure within some of their heads caused a nasal aneurysm, giving themselves another Epistaxis—the first one being when I punched Xeno outright and drew blood from his protruding snout.

"(Eduardo's strength is nightmarish!)" Xeno pondered, struggling to keep a mental grip on me, and failing more and more by the second. "(Not even with my psychic power accumulated though twenty DOUBLE TEAM clones am I able to restrain him!)"

Having broken free enough from his TELEKINESIS to channel my aura, I quickly configured my Aura Dragon Cloak to emanate White (Light) Aura, and then condensed its energy within my center.

"(…_Luster Burst_...!)"

And with those two words formulated within my mind, the entire Red Sea became enveloped in blinding white light, which seeped through the water much more strongly than the sun itself.

The twenty Xeno clones that surrounded me within the water were instinctive in shielding their eyes from the bright light. And because their TELEKINESIS concentration was disrupted, their remaining mental chains surrounding me were severed, allowing me to break free.

I waste no time in switching my Aura Dragon Cloak from White (Light) Aura to Red (Fire) Aura. The blinding white light that I was emanating quickly became red with building heat.

"(…_Pyro Upsurge_...!)"

And that same heat began to mimic the energy outputted by the sun, causing the water surrounding me—surrounding the twenty Xeno clones—to drastically rise in temperature.

It only took a few seconds in my part to cause the water surrounding us to _boil_.

Both of my brothers, having proceeded over to the coastline of the Red Sea upon the two of us diving into the water, watched on as the water was glowing crimson and bubbled at the surface. They couldn't believe the power I possessed and was radiating, to be able to cause a massive body of water to rise in temperature so fast and so high.

All twenty of the DOUBLE TEAM clones within the water surrounding me felt the full effects of the scalding waters—while I felt nothing but raw power expressed from the Elemental Aura from my Aura Dragon Cloak, because Red (Fire) Aura acted as a fireproof bulwark for me. The pain they were feeling all across their body was great, as though the water _itself_ had adopted and become fire, and was sousing their bodies with its omnipresent pain. And despite the mental resilience that Xeno had developed against fire and heat, the physical resilience was still present.

Most of the clones couldn't bear the heat and boiled away, bubbling into the surface and disappearing altogether, leaving only five to brave the 212°F+ temperatures that I was generating. These five clones braved the heat, their willpower keeping them from disappearing into oblivion, their minds locked onto the objective of keeping me under control, to subdue my powers, to render them stable rather than further amok.

**Number of Xeno DOUBLE TEAM duplicates remaining: 80**

And they were going to do so, by fighting fire with ice.

While fighting the heat, two of the three Xeno clones channeled their aura and configured it to disperse across the water, _freezing_ the water surrounding them solid with SHEER COLD.

Their frigid technique, just as quickly as my own Red (Fire) Aura, changed the aquatic temperatures surrounding them within seconds. Their SHEER COLD technique, with its borderline sub-zero temperatures, proved to be an equal opposite to my _Pyro Upsurge_ technique, and managed to regulate the temperatures within the waters back to their normal equilibrium, causing my power to recede back towards me in the process and leaving the temperature of the water as though it weren't disturbed by the two of us in the first place.

Seeing this, the other three Xeno clones saw this chance and exploited it. They each inhaled sharply before popping their respective air BUBBLEs, and then they made like the other two Xeno clones and channeled their aura for the use of an Ice-Type technique. However, rather than emanate it across their whole body—where its energy is evenly distributed across their surroundings—, they condensed it within their open mouths, with the intention of firing a concentrated ICE BEAM, with all of its energy, at a single given point.

Those three Xeno clones, with their fully-charged ICE BEAM techniques aimed directly towards me, fired them from their open mouths. Their ICE BEAM attacks traveled straight and true, in the shape of directed white lightning.

Before my body, I felt three beams of freezing energy make direct contact with me. And despite my Aura Dragon Cloak adopting the hellfire properties of my Red (Fire) Aura, I still found myself outmatched by Xeno's stalwart use of greater numbers over me. His technique stopped my use of Red (Fire) Aura _cold_, causing the heat energy that I was emanating to become nothing more than bubbling mist within the water. And then, with the cryogenic properties of his three-pronged ICE BEAM attack, I found myself freezing over at an alarmingly fast rate, finding it instantly difficult to move away, and immediately impossible to escape from his attacks.

It only took a few seconds for Xeno to encase me within a massive block of ice, immobilizing me within solidified water, causing my Aura Dragon Cloak to leave me in the process.

Four of the Xeno clones kept me and my icy prison below the water and from floating up by gripping onto it. The fifth clone out of this group however, couldn't help but ponder something solemn.

"(Why do I have the nagging feeling that this isn't over yet…)"

The fifth Xeno clone, with his Aura Vision ability, looked deep within my body, sensing the aura surrounding me.

Sure enough, my aura field _still_ didn't show signs of submitting to Xeno's methods of restraining me. It was still flaring strongly, albeit wasn't being projected outward in the form of my Aura Dragon Cloak because of my enclosed space inhibiting my power.

...Or at least, not at this moment.

Before Xeno's Aura Vision ability, he could clearly identify that I was beginning to surge massive quantities of Yellow (Lightning) Aura, and that my Aura Dragon Cloak was beginning to rematerialize again. He even sensed the same intimidating dragon silhouette that was unexplainably present within my aura field, and saw it glaring menacingly at him, almost as though it were staring into his own soul.

"(Aw crap…)" Xeno's dread pounded strongly within his heart.

With my Yellow (Lightning) Aura and my Aura Dragon Cloak beginning to flare once more as strongly as ever, the icy cocoon that Xeno placed me within could no longer contain me. It was beginning to crack under my growing pressure, under the great voltage that I was generating in my core.

"(…_Electro Fusillade_...!)"

And then, in one great outburst, my frozen shell shattered under my power and my body launched powerful bolts of electricity all around my body, branching out across the water in all directions.

There was no escape for the five Xeno clones surrounding me. The water surrounding them conducted the electricity perfectly, instantly paralyzing them them with its lethal voltage, enveloping them in a yellow light and causing them to tremor uncontrollably as their muscular and nervous systems went haywire.

They disappeared eventually, but not before my technique left their bodies roasted to the bone.

_(Song Ends)_

**Number of Xeno DOUBLE TEAM duplicates remaining: 75**

The fact that I obliterated these twenty clones alerted the vast majority of the ones that remained to close in on me.

_Heavy Violence/Naruto Original Soundtrack III/Toshiro Masuda_

_(Song Begins)_

Within this aquatic setting that I was surrounded by, I could identify a couple dozen _more_ Xeno clones DIVE under the water, entering the shallow depths that I still resided within. These clones were approaching me fast, using AQUA JET to _cut through_ the water at high speed, rather than swim in the water and have it drag them down.

I was still emanating Yellow (Lightning) Aura all across my body, and quickly channeled it towards my two hands in response to their approaching.

Within each hand, a small sphere of electrical energy swirled at the center of my palms, sparking small and random bolts on occasion.

"(…_Electro Salvo_...!)"

With surprising speed, despite the water dragging down my movement, I thrust my arms towards each and every Xeno clone that came my way, firing off compacted spheres of electricity at the clones that were closest to me. Each individual sphere of crackling lightning fired straight and true, the water proving ineffective in changing its course or slowing it down, mostly because water conducts electricity and _supports_ it rather than repels it or smothers it.

All of the Xeno clones that I targeted took evasive measures in avoiding my consistent attacks, swerving left and right, up and down, to avoid being struck and electrocuted into oblivion by my technique.

However, because of how fast I was firing them, and how spread out my individual attacks were, I managed to strike a small percentage of the Xeno clones directly. Their immediate contact with my _Electro Salvo_ projectile caused their entire body to freeze as electricity coursed through their system, just before they disappeared and became nothing more than air bubbles rising towards the water's surface.

Exactly twenty Xeno clones slept with the fishes through my technique, but the remainder of Xeno's DOUBLE TEAM facsimiles continued cutting through the water with AQUA JET, swimming towards me and closing our distance.

**Number of Xeno DOUBLE TEAM duplicates remaining: 55**

Before I could retaliate at them however, the fact of the matter that I have yet to take a breath began to resonate within me, forcing me to take priority and resurface or drown to death.

Wasting no time, my Aura Dragon Cloak reconfigures from Yellow (Lightning) Aura to Blue (Water) Aura, and I swim towards the surface, using this Elemental Aura manipulation over water to allow me to cut through the water effortlessly. I even use my aura-based wings and tail to help me swim at highway speeds underwater, my broad wings acting as massive pectoral fins and my elongated tail shifting side-to-side to propel me forward.

In no time, I breach the surface of the Red Sea, moving fast enough to leap out of the water a full fifteen feet high into the air. And when I descended back down, because of my Blue (Water) Aura, I landed on_ top_ of the water, rather than splashed and submerged once more into it. My white sports jacket/pants combination—save for the missing right arm sleeve—, alongside my strapped "S-Rank" devices, were drenched from residing underwater for so long, and dripped heavily onto the surface of the water that I stood on top of, regrouping with the massive body of water and drying me off in the process.

Without warning, before I so much as had a chance to look down, one of the Xeno clones struck me from below with AQUA JET and continued rising upward, with me in the process, dozens of feet into the air. Upon leaving the Red Sea's surface, Xeno's AQUA JET technique surrounded him within a veil of water, which revolved around his entire body, leaving behind a trail of water in the process that hung in mid-air for an abnormally long period of time, before dropping back down.

Xeno only managed to catch me by surprise and cause me to ascend a few stories into the air, but he didn't manage to stun me with his force of impact. And because, in a sense, I was _riding_ him—clinging tightly to his AQUA JET technique and his body in the process—, he inadvertently allowed me to be placed in close proximity of him.

With this fact in mind, my overall aura shifted from Blue (Water) Aura to Light Blue (Ice) Aura. And with the moisture that I had collected on my person, as well as from Xeno's AQUA JET technique, I held out my right hand and had it become engulfed in a thick layer of ice, in the rough shape of a hammer.

"(…_Cryo Crush_…!)"

Without remorse, I brought down my right hand straight onto Xeno's face, easily bypassing his AQUA JET veil and hammering him dead center in the forehead. And because this Xeno in particular was only a feeble DOUBLE TEAM clone, he disappeared instantly with one attack, and I fell back onto the surface of the water. My feet, upon touching the surface of the Red Sea, _instantly_ froze the surface of the water that I stood on top of, allowing me to stand upright on a dense enough layer of ice.

Wasting no time after landing on my two aura-cloaked feet, I made a mad dash across the surface of the Red Sea, knowing well enough what was lurking beneath these waters. And with my Light Blue (Ice) Aura presently in effect, every running step that I took forward caused the water to flash freeze, allowing me to walk across ice and leaving behind me a trail of it.

Much like great white sharks—or Sharpedo as he is more familiar with—leaping out of the water as they strike their targeted prey from below, many of the Xeno doubles emulated this physical feat. With their AQUA JET techniques, they repeatedly breached the surface of the Red Sea, leaped out of the water, and dived back down below the surface, swimming persistently and staying close to my tail.

The first time that some of the Xeno clones leapt out of the water, it was to lock onto my position—confirming it with their sense of sight and their Aura Vision ability—and inspire more air into their lungs. The second time that they leapt out of the water was to attempt to collide _into_ me. However, I evaded each and every Xeno that I saw coming my way. I ducked under one that came at me from my right side, jumped over one that came at me from in front of me, and rolled underneath one that came at me from my left side.

I even caused two of them to collide into each other when they both resurfaced simultaneously at me. I managed to smack them into each other by grabbing them by the crown of their heads with each of my icy cold, bare hands, and then smacking their heads against each other. They disappeared in a mist of water spread evenly across the air, with a slight hint of ice fragments from my bare hands making contact with them and freezing a portion of their AQUA JET technique.

**Number of Xeno DOUBLE TEAM duplicates remaining: 53**

Employing a different tactic, many of the Xeno clones resurfaced and jumped over the Red Sea's surface, dissipating their AQUA JET techniques and manipulating the aura by their feet to run on the surface of the water as well. It wasn't long until I found ten dark blue cops in hot pursuit of me, following me and the trail of ice that I left behind in my wake.

Of course, alongside these ten that I could identify on the surface of the Red Sea, there were ten more underneath the Red Sea's surface, still using AQUA JET to swim through the water, overtaking me in the process without my realization of the fact.

It wasn't until they were sufficiently ahead of me that they resurfaced in front of my path. When they did so, I stopped running altogether, my feet sliding across the surface of the ice that I formed until friction and my inertia impeded my movement altogether.

Surrounding me were _twenty_ carbon copies of the real Xeno Lucario, forty suspicious golden eyes watching on at me, making sure that I don't do anything that they can't see.

Before my two sanguine eyes, I could see them all clasping their paws together, holding them out directly in front of their body, feeding them greatly with aura power for their next attack.

By their feet, the water began to climb onto their individual bodies, starting by their feet and progressing upward, eventually enveloping their entirety in a layer of water.

Then, when these twenty Xeno clones parted their paws ever so slightly, the aura between them drew the water that surrounded them into its center, assimilating it like a magnet, condensing it into a large sphere of water that they now held between their paws.

My eyes constantly shifted targets amongst each and every copy that surrounded me, each one of them displaying exactly the same posture, power, and preparation for whatever attack was on their minds to utilize on me.

Within my subconscious and from earlier events, I took to mind how difficult it was for me to cope with a situation like this, where I was outnumbered and surrounded, barely able to cope with Xeno's multiplication of his power and his accumulation of it being brandished down upon me. And not wanting this to occur all over for me again, I stood firm, forming a battle stance, waiting for his move.

I didn't have long to wait, because all twenty of these Xeno clones fired their charged attack directly at me, in the form of a powerful concentration of blasted water, by the name of HYDRO PUMP.

This attack, from all around me, came at me fast, but I braced myself for its arrival, and acted almost instantly when I saw its impending arrival.

I coiled my Aura Dragon Cloak inward, closer towards the center of my body, and immediately had it become more of a spherical aura field surrounding me rather than a dragon-like outline. And with my Light Blue (Ice) Aura still in effect, this change in aura shape still retained the cryogenic properties that I required for my counterattack.

Much like a wound-up top that was let go onto the floor to spin, I spun madly around my center point, my Light Blue (Ice) Aura following suit, growing in revolving power in the process.

When Xeno's HYDRO PUMP technique hit me from all sides, it made contact _not_ with me, but with my Light Blue (Ice) Aura, and felt the full force of touching that frigid Elemental Aura. All of the water, a vast volume of water, was immediately halted in its tracks and carried along with the revolving Light Blue (Ice) Aura, swirling around it and flash freezing in the process.

It wasn't until the twenty clones stopped their attack that they noticed what they did for me. They gave me water to add upon myself, to manipulate in my favor.

"(…_Cryo Chrysalis_...!)"

Before their Aura Vision imbued eyes, the Xeno clones saw a _massive_ spherical shell of ice, grooved in such a way that (obviously) suggested it was spun as it froze rather than remaining still under the mercy of my hoarfrost. This glacial cocoon acted as a bulwark that resided outward from my body like a hamster ball made of ice, rather than what Xeno attempted to do with me earlier when he tried to _imprison_ me in the ice. It remained above the surface of the water, due in part to the ice's aligned molecular structure that allows it to be less dense than water, and because within the ice—aside from me—was nothing more than cold air.

Confirming this massive hollow sphere of ice as a bulwark, they resorted to melting it with fire, and already began to inhale deeply as preparation for a Fire-Type technique.

However, if they thought that I was going to remain within here and cower within my own shield, then they are sorely mistaken. What I had in mind instead was to turn this gigantic orb of rime from defense into offense, in one fell swoop.

With nothing more than an outward thrust of my Aura Dragon Cloak, returning it from a compacted sphere into the shape that it originally possessed, my Light Blue (Ice) Aura burst forth in power, creating a shockwave that shattered my icy dome into hundreds of varying shards of ice.

"(…_Cryo Flechette_...)"

Those same shards of ice, the vast majority of them made razor sharp and/or in the shape of daggers, flew fast and far from me, firing off with a spray wide enough to impale anything in all directions.

The twenty Xeno Lucario could only react quickly enough to see these ice shards fly towards him in all directions, before they were all impaled in random areas of their body, their steel-like bodies proving to be surprisingly little defense against sharpened shards of ice that traveled at triple-digit speeds.

_(Song Ends)_

**Number of Xeno DOUBLE TEAM duplicates remaining: 33**

Both Costas and Ian, standing by the coastline of the Red Sea, instinctively ducked and covered to avoid the spray of ice shards that flew their way, narrowly avoiding them by the skin of their teeth.

When my technique subsided, all that remained around me was the water of the Red Sea, no Xeno clone in apparent sight. Just utter silence within these waters, a silence that I stood in the center of.

_Jinchuuriki/Naruto Shippuden Original Soundtrack/Toshiro Masuda_

_(Song Begins)_

This silence didn't last too long for me however. Within a few seconds, I noticed movement below the Red Sea, in the form of three Xeno clones swimming directly below me with their AQUA JET technique, circulating clockwise with sufficient speed. I didn't understand their reasoning behind this, this motion that replicated undersea predators circling their prey.

It wasn't until these Xeno clones started gyrating with enough speed that their AQUA JET streaks became one big ring of water below that I noticed what they were planning.

They were creating a WHIRLPOOL underneath the surface, one strong enough to sink me into the water once more.

Just before I had the notion to escape however, six more Xeno clones resurfaced and made their presence around me. They all channeled a small portion of their aura into their paws and caused them to spark a small amount of electricity, moments before they fired it at me in the form of a submitting THUNDER WAVE.

The electricity hit me and immediately caused me to lose function and feeling all around my body, paralyzing me on direct contact. My Aura Dragon Cloak shrank somewhat—the wings and tail that formed from it halved in size as well—and I found myself losing function of my Elemental Aura abilities. My Light Blue (Ice) Aura receded from my use, and I fell into the water when the ice by my feet melted away. I could no longer keep myself upright on the feeble surface tension of the water, and I sank below into the water, directly into the forming WHIRLPOOL that the three Xeno clones below me were forming with their coordinated revolutions.

Once again, I was submerged within the water, cut off from air of the surface. Only this time, Xeno employed different tactics than earlier. He _electrocuted_ me before submerging me within the water, paralyzing me in the process and rendering me immobile.

And now, with his WHIRLPOOL technique forming below the surface of the Red Sea, he was going to have me sink directly into it, causing me to succumb to its mercy, disorienting me until I pass out from a lack of oxygen, or from severe vertigo, whichever comes first.

However, even though I was now within this swirling vortex of water, spinning in every single imaginable direction and rapidly losing my sense of equilibrium, I wasn't going to allow him to subdue me this way within the water, until I drown or pass out.

I continued to fight against Xeno's inflicted muscular paralysis upon me through sheer power, attempting to channel my aura against this forced hiatus and break free of it. I focus my aura—finding it difficult to do so in my present state—and cause it to shift amongst the Elemental Aura abilities that I presently known.

Before the surface-dwelling Xeno clones' Aura Vision eyes, they could see my aura taking on different colors altogether, changing from red to blue, from white to black, from yellow to brown. What he couldn't understand though was the reasoning in this.

"(What are you trying to do?)" The Xeno clones pondered, each of them sensing and visualizing the shifts amongst my innate aura.

It wasn't until I had myself set on Purple (Psychic) Aura that I got the results that leaned in my favor. My telekinetic abilities, once I enveloped them all around my body, were beginning to _transcend_ the paralysis on my body, allowing my mind to connect to my physical self _outside_ of my nervous system, where Xeno's THUNDER WAVE technique had no reach.

"(…_Psycho Override_…!)"

I was beginning to move, slowly at the moment, against the violent current of his WHIRLPOOL technique, orienting my body back into the equilibrium that his technique was preventing me from acquiring. And slowly and steadily, I was succeeding, with my growing experience in controlling my body in this manner.

"(Using telekinesis to move your body rather than your own muscles…)" Xeno contemplated my actions, "(…very clever and helpful in a situation such as this.)"

The six Aura Pokémon clones that resided above the surface of the Red Sea—much against the present situation—began to _dance_ and revolve around the imaginary ring that they formed with their standing positions. This dance however, was unlike any normal dance, where it's to the rhythm of music. This dance was more mystical, more graceful and elegant. Xeno's movements were wave-like and streamlined, rather than sharp and rigid, fittingly emulating the movements and basic nature of _water_.

Both Costas and Ian, seeing Xeno's bizarre choice of action from the Red Sea's coastline, this coordinated dance that seemed like the absolute _last_ think that they'd expect Xeno to do during this critical battle, couldn't wrap their heads around the reasoning behind this.

Not until they noticed the sky itself did they begin to connect the purpose of this dance.

They saw, directly above the heads of the clone Aura Pokémon, the formation of _clouds_. These clouds were forming hundreds of feet above the sky, starting out as fluffy white cumulus clouds, before growing and growing in size, darkening in the process as well when the sunlight had more and more of a problem penetrating through these clouds. They continued to grow and darken, laying a shadow over the portion of the Red Sea that acted as the battlefield that the Xeno clones and I presently inhabited.

And inevitably, these clouds began to _rain_ down water upon Xeno, and upon the Red Sea.

"Was that a RAIN DANCE that Xeno just did?" Costas muttered to his brother, astonished at Xeno's abilities.

"Seems like it," Ian muttered as well, confirming Costas's inquiry.

The six DOUBLE TEAM clones immediately ceased their RAIN DANCE when they received the desired effects. Xeno looked up at the gray clouds above him, at the rain drops that were falling down upon his face and splashing tens of thousands of times every second upon the surface of the Red Sea.

He smiled faintly, at what he had in store for me.

With the telekinetic abilities of my Purple (Psychic) Aura granting me more and more physical freedom from my inflicted paralysis, I was growing more and more resilient to Xeno's WHIRLPOOL technique. I was finding it easier and easier to fight against the dizzying currents of his WHIRLPOOL technique and was within moments of breaking free from it and resurfacing.

The Xeno clones however—upon sensing this growing resistance from me—were still as strong-willed and persistent as ever, and weren't willing to let me run amok again. Two of the Xeno clones that were on the surface of the Red Sea descended back down and joined the other three Xeno clones that were using their strength to generate the WHIRLPOOL that was imprisoning me, adding their strength in fueling this cyclone of water.

The result of this was a spontaneous growth spurt of their WHIRLPOOL technique. Within seconds, the strength of this underwater twister grew to the point where it shifted the water in the surface, causing it to spin alongside the WHIRLPOOL below, until both separate bodies of water _blended_ seamlessly and became one _monstrosity_ of a water bound vortex.

The four Xeno clones that were still upon the surface of the Red Sea receded far enough back, in order to avoid getting caught in this strengthened WHIRLPOOL.

From their perspective, they could see a glowing purple entity, at the complete mercy of this vortex of water that five of the Xeno clones were generating with their power. The escape attempt that I was utilizing my Purple (Psychic) Aura for was now all for naught, when the vicious currents of this WHIRLPOOL superseded me and sent me spiraling alongside them.

Knowing that now was the time to strike me, these four Xeno clones standing on the Red Sea's surface began to glow bright yellow, when they all began gathering and amplifying the electricity within them by using CHARGE. And once their charged electricity was built up to the point where their very bodies were seeping erratic sparks of electricity onto the water, they knew it was time to use a powerful Electric-Type attack on me.

In unison, all four of these Xeno clones aimed their left paws at the center of the rainclouds that their earlier RAIN DANCE technique summoned, and immediately fired all of their gathered electrical energy from their bodies at their target. The result of this was the firing of four powerful, simultaneous THUNDERBOLT attacks, all of them striking the rainclouds overhead and swelling them with electricity.

The rainclouds themselves contained this sudden uprising of electrical energy, illuminating and sparking considerably for only a few seconds in the process, before it was all let loose and brought back down, _directly_ down upon the WHIRLPOOL that I was swirling within, in the form of one godly bolt of electricity that existed for one second. The clouds themselves only lasted for ten before dispersing in the wind.

Instantly, the monumental amount of energy of Xeno's THUNDER technique, despite its brief moment in life,_ roasted_ me senseless, the electricity dispersing all of its energy into the WHIRLPOOL that five Xeno clones created to contain me within.

However, the energy of this technique proved great enough to _obliterate_ those five Xeno clones as well, causing the WHIRLPOOL to cease altogether. The WHIRLPOOL, with its enormous energy allowing it to revolve at high speeds, didn't disperse it all in an instant and settle back into the Red Sea as an undisturbed body of water. It took time for that to happen, for the Red Sea to regain its basic equilibrium after what just occurred through his power.

(_Song Ends_)

**Number of Xeno DOUBLE TEAM duplicates remaining: 28**

_Stalemate/Naruto Shippuden Original Soundtrack/Toshiro Masuda_

_(Song Begins)_

Of course, during that time, the WHIRLPOOL grew feeble enough to no longer be able to support my weight, and I sank below it, back into the Red Sea. My entire body was burnt harshly on every square inch of skin by the one-million volt bolt of lightning dropped down upon me. My wardrobe was burned and scarred in select areas, while my strapped "S-Rank" devices remained untouched.

I was no longer emanating Purple (Psychic) Aura, but I _still_ emanated the Aura Dragon Cloak that signified my inner will to fight, to endure and transcend. Even though, at this very moment, I was still unconscious.

I was unconscious, but still acting instinctively and with military hostility, still making strategic judgments on my present situation.

And right now, during this situation, I sensed that my entire body was burned from Xeno's ruthless THUNDER attack, and quickly proceeded to _recover_ my injuries, before wishing to inflict this damage back on Xeno, ten-fold.

My Aura Dragon Cloak began to incorporate Green (Healing) Aura, enveloping me in its refreshing swathe, bathing me in its curative light.

"(…_Bio Mend_…!)"

And this light emanating from me—despite me being a few dozen feet below the water's surface—could be seen clearly by Xeno, even without his Aura Vision imbued eyes.

"(You're still so martially puissant…)" Xeno pondered, staring down at me, sensing the Green (Healing) Aura emanating from my body already shedding away my burned flesh and replacing it with new, pristine skin, and removing the paralysis that his earlier THUNDER WAVE technique inflicted upon me. "(Even after what I've inflicted upon you, you're still so resilient, you're still willing to fight to the end, even while _unconscious_, even though I'm trying to stop you from doing so and snap you back to normal.)"

A sharp chill of dread rolled down Xeno's spine, at the idea that this fight can drag on forever, decided by whoever outlasts the other, as was dictated before this sparring match—which is _no longer_ a sparring match—even started. The fear he was feeling within him, the reason for the sharp chill down his spine, he understood exactly its roots of origin.

He was fighting against me in my full power, unchained and unhindered from the concrete ideology I have of placing friendship above power, about protecting those that I love with the resources and abilities that I possess.

And now that Xeno has triggered this state of being within me, by deliberately knocking me unconscious and causing this martial uprising to surge forth from me, he has no choice but to fight me at his best as well, which was what he wanted from me in the first place, whether he still wished this from me or not.

And yet, despite his initial fear of my power, he was feeling a few other emotions stirring within him as well.

He was feeling bravery for facing me at this terrifying level of power, against facing an opponent that he didn't fully understand and was learning about as he progressed. Alongside this, he was strongly feeling excitement for this fight, for fighting a new opponent that was full of surprises and versatile enough in combat to constantly keep him on his toes. He was also feeling, strangely enough, happiness—_ecstasy_ even—over facing an opponent who is not only resilient enough to make this fight challenging and lengthy, but powerful enough to injure, or even _kill_ him if he so much as drops his guard, has a mental lapse, or makes a stupid move.

The adrenaline coursing through his veins, the full concentration he had dedicated upon me and my choice of actions, and the thrill of utilizing powerful new techniques within his virtually limitless move arsenal.

He had never felt more alive in his life than he was feeling right now.

Not against Absol did he feel this much euphoria in battle, mostly because his mind was too focused on stopping Absol's ridiculous ideas of genocide of his own native species—before the Disaster Pokémon eventually reunited with him and understood he had changed for the better.

Not against Giovanni did he feel this much drive for combat, mostly because he was too focused on the safekeeping and freedom of his own friends, the Pokémon that he can call his colleagues from his "Team Liberator" days, as well as his lifelong friends that he wished to see once again.

Not against Sceptile did he feel this much lust for conflict, mostly because he was trying to stop his forest-dwelling friend from further wounding itself over the genuine loss of its friends to external sources—Wanderer and Xeno Lucario being captured by Team Rocket and Tiny Riolu having perished within its own left arm.

Not against Dialga and Palkia—or even the Roman General Mars—did he feel this much yearning for fighting, mostly because these powerful forces stood in the way of the Pokémon—and people—that he cared about.

And lastly, not against the hooded figure did he feel this much urge for physical dispute, mostly because it was too brief and too one-sided, the hooded figure just plainly overwhelming him from the start, _period_.

But against me, against a man named Eduardo, the self-named "Man of Bulwark", a proficient user of Elemental Aura, a being capable of shifting between this human state and that of a white-scaled dragon at will, a genius with brilliance in everything relating to modern technology, and a lifelong guardian over whatever he classifies as his personal treasures. He felt this powerful feeling within him, this genuine freedom and primal joy of battle, the surreal manipulation of life and death being decided in a split-second, especially if the opportunity presents itself.

Deep down within himself, he didn't want this thrilling battle to end. He wanted it last as long as physically possible, which is why he stood patiently over the Red Sea. He was waiting for me to fully recover rather than strike a wounded opponent.

His only doubt in doing this was that he missed the perfect opportunity to put an end to my rampage, and that as the battle continued, it would end with him collapsing from fatigue, or—much more likely—fall in battle.

"(Well then,)" he pondered somberly. "(I'll just have to stop you all the more faster.)"

_(Song Ends)_

Xeno sensed that I was near fully recovered of my earlier burn injury from his THUNDER attack, and he wasted no time in bracing my inevitable resurfacing. He and every one of his remaining DOUBLE TEAM duplicates regrouped over the surface of the Red Sea—the ones that were not present here earlier warped to this exact location through TELEPORT. All twenty-nine Xeno Lucario—the original amongst his twenty-eight exact copies—awaited my imminent retaliation, and braced themselves.

_UNTAMABLE/Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance Original Soundtrack DISC 1/Tsuyoshi Sekito_

_(Song Begins)_

Once I could feel that my injuries had fully healed, my Green (Healing) Aura disengaged from use and was replaced by my Light Green (Wind) Aura, my Aura Dragon Cloak growing somewhat in the process, my aura-based wings and tail especially.

My eyes traced for the presence of Xeno Lucario and his remaining DOUBLE TEAM duplicates. And once I had locked on to them all, my face immediately grew harsh with bitter spite, my artificial blood red eyes scowling as vehemently as ever, and my teeth gritted with absolute fury.

No time was wasted in my part at resurfacing from the depths of the Red Sea, my wings and tail moving against the denser viscosity of the water and propelling me upward at high speed.

Xeno Lucario knew that the time for Eduardo's vendetta was amongst them now.

In the blink of an eye, I rocketed out of the Red Sea, causing a massive pillar of water to rise in my wake and splash back down. The twenty-nine Aura Pokémon on the surface of the Red Sea disregarded the splash striking at their three-tone fur, and kept their Aura Vision eyes firmly locked at me, knowing well enough now just how dangerous I have become.

I continued soaring higher and higher into the air, until I was approximately 1,000 feet above sea level, above Xeno and his remaining replications. Once at this height, I turned my body and faced them down below, the rhythmic flapping of my broad, aura-based wings keeping me easily airborne. Their collected presence on the surface of the water was clear to me as night and day.

A simple realignment of my wings and tail allowed me to suddenly barrel roll alongside my center and at high speed, my Light Green (Wind) Aura intensifying in the process.

"(…_Aero Blade Bombardment_...!)"

In the general direction that I was facing Xeno, dozens upon dozens of concentrated air currents fired from my momentum and swiftly rained down directly upon Xeno and his facsimiles.

"(This reminds me of Absol's RAZOR WIND technique, but with much more…rapidity.)" Xeno pondered, seeing these blades of wind coming down upon him.

Immediately, he and his duplicates proceeded to defend themselves against these gale blades that I fired at them concurrently. Some of them used PROTECT and took the attacks head on, while others used their AGILITY and evaded my attacks by the skin of their teeth, and in the process, my _Aero Blade Bombardment_ technique made its power—_my_ power—known to Xeno and his clones.

Each blade of air that made contact with the water caused the water to rise and spread outward as though an underwater mine was detonated below the surface. The Xeno clones that utilized PROTECT took the blades of air at full power, and were forced to sink under the surface of the Red Sea in the process. The G-Forces that those Xeno clones succumbed to, to suddenly be smothered into the Red Sea, even _rattle_ within their own defensive shields, proved too great for a small fraction of them to endure, and they disappeared alongside their PROTECT bulwarks, while many of them bobbed back up to the surface, shaken but not decimated.

Alongside those Xeno clones, there were a few others that mistimed their evasiveness against my _Aero Blade Bombardment_ technique, were struck cold by my technique and disappeared in an instant.

In the end, eight more Xeno clones swam with the fishes.

**Number of Xeno DOUBLE TEAM duplicates remaining: 20**

"(I'm nothing more than a painted target to him here!)" Xeno pondered, seeing how his numbers have dwindled considerably. "(If I want to stop him, I must bring him back down to my level.)"

I stopped spinning altogether after using my _Aero Blade Bombardment_ technique and smiled smugly at the dwindled numbers that I saw below me.

"(And in order to do so, I must go up to _his_ level first.)"

Before my eyes, I saw each and every Xeno below me spontaneously take flight and FLY upward, directly towards me and with obvious martial intent. I just take this as a challenge and dive-bomb towards them all, tucking in my aura-based wings and straightening out my aura-based tail into a streamlined, arrowhead shape.

Within seconds, a dogfight amongst the twenty-one Xeno Lucario and the solitary I ensued, once the distance between us in mid-air was closed. Amongst the throng of Aura Pokémon in my sights, I banked left and right, up and down, spun in mid-air, climbed and dropped, all while these nearby Lucario launched AURA SPHERE after AURA SPHERE as I came close enough within their range. Many of their attacks came close to striking me at times. However, I proved nimble enough in flight to suddenly swerve out of harm's way, often times at the last possible moment.

At one point during this aerial fray, I tucked my wings in and barrel-rolled out of the path of an incoming AURA SPHERE, having that Fighting-Type projectile missing me narrowly, and intercepting an incoming Xeno clone, obliterating him on the spot.

**Number of Xeno DOUBLE TEAM duplicates remaining: 19**

Some of the Xeno clones employed pointblank combat tactics over projectile warfare, and attempted to ram into me, with the intent of disorienting me off of my flight pattern. Even though every Lucario had their eyes glowing gold with their activated Aura Vision ability—in order to accurately sense my movements—, I still proved too fast for them to physically react against.

So when three Xeno clones attempted to ram into me all at once, I only had a split-second to note their positions around me—two above me and one below—before hitting the brakes in mid-flight. My wings tilted upward, to the point where their broad surface area acted against the rushing wind, and became parachutes that sliced my speed down instantly.

The result of this was those three cocky Xeno clones _crashing_ into each other, in the location where I _would've_ been flying in a split-second earlier, if I had not slowed down drastically before their imminent collision.

It goes without saying that they disappeared in a heartbeat after smashing into each other.

**Number of Xeno DOUBLE TEAM duplicates remaining: 16**

Unfortunately for me, because I slowed down to avoid their attack, gravity had a stronger pull on me, and I dropped down enough until I was only about fifty feet from the earth. And then, at this height, I quickly reoriented myself back to flying against the forces of gravity and kept myself level and aerodynamic, skimming over the earth below.

Xeno Lucario and his sixteen remaining clones still continued to FLY in hot pursuit of me, remaining a couple hundred feet above my location in the process, and never letting their trained eyes lose sight of me. And judging how low I was to the earth at this point, he had an epiphany for this present situation.

The original Xeno directed five of his remaining clones to dive-bomb at me, all at once.

Xeno's selected five clones knew all too well what he had in mind—mostly because they _shared_ the same mindset as he—and nodded in agreement.

Simultaneously, all five of those doubles shined brightly with white light, before locking onto my location below and diving down towards me, streamlining themselves to the best of their ability, so that their speed was now at _half_ of that of sound.

With their SKY ATTACK flaring and fired like bullets towards me, I didn't notice their attack on me and evade in time, let alone _notice_ their location in the first place, after I had equilibrated myself from dropping significantly in the sky.

Sickeningly, I could feel them dive-bombing me, all five of them striking me simultaneously, each of them finding enough surface area on the backside of my cloaked body to collide with. This attack from these five kamikaze Aura Pokémon proved great enough to overwhelm their existence, and they departed after their bodies struck me solidly.

_(Song Ends)_

**Number of Xeno DOUBLE TEAM duplicates remaining: 11**

Unsurprisingly, I was knocked straight down by their terrific force directed upon my entire backside, and I was unable to reorient myself back up.

My whole body immediately crashed into the earth below me, leaving an indentation in the earth through my initial landing spot. I didn't stop in my tracks after hitting the floor though. Because of the speed I was traveling at, I continued to move across the earth, tumbling and undulating dozens of times with each nauseating impact on the ground, leaving body-sized indentations on the dirt wherever my body slammed and moved on.

It was as though the ground below me was the surface of a lake, and I was a skipping stone that Xeno launched with his strength.

After rolling head over tail across a couple hundred feet of grassy earth, I eventually regained my footing, about-facing the general direction my momentum was carrying me, and slid over the ground backwards, with the soles of my shoes and the aura-based dragon feet that my Aura Dragon Cloak bestowed upon me acting like brakes to help bring me to a halt.

And it wasn't until there was enough dirt collected behind my feet to reach my ankles did I finally stop.

Once my momentum had finally impeded after Xeno's simultaneous SKY ATTACK knocked me out of the sky, my eyes were coincidentally facing the direction where I left physical evidence of my brutal crash landing. Before me, I could see a few dozen brown depressions on the earth, where my body dug into, with some of the dirt from them clinging onto my monochrome clothing. And alongside this, I could feel bruising over most of my body, mild bruising however because of the Aura Dragon Cloak enveloping me having absorbed most of the trauma before it contacted me.

Before I could shake the dirt off of me however, one of the Xeno duplicates spontaneously TELEPORT-ed directly in front of my face, holding an AURA SPHERE in his left paw, already in the process of slamming it into me rather than throwing it at me from long range.

I didn't have a chance to react against this, and could only take this AURA SPHERE square on my face. And when the Xeno clone's AURA SPHERE struck me in the center of my countenance, it exploded with enough force against my general direction to send me flying backwards and flat on my back.

Before his Aura Vision eyes, he could see that my aura field dwindled, that my Aura Dragon Cloak disappeared from sight, with all the external dragon-like characteristics that it gave me—a pair of horns, claws, talons, wings and a tail—departing instantly.

The Xeno clone that sucker punched me onto the floor approached me until his feet narrowly touched my own, and the remaining Xeno clones—alongside the original that was amongst them—descended from their flight and landed on the ground a reasonable distance away from this solitary Xeno clone, for safety reasons.

The Xeno copy examined my stagnant body, sensing for any telltale signs of my Aura Dragon Cloak, hoping that it was no longer present within me and that I had regained my senses.

He looked at the center of my body, where my heart is, and is immediately startled when he sees the dragon silhouette glare at him with piercing red eyes.

And then, before he knew it, he felt himself hoisted off of the ground, held this way by an aura-based tail coiled tightly around his neck.

_Hidan/Naruto Shippuden Original Soundtrack II/Toshiro Masuda_

_(Song Begins)_

The original Xeno amongst his duplicates looked on from his secure distance, astonished by what he was seeing. He and his doppelgangers saw me instantaneously back up on my feet, with my Aura Dragon Cloak returning before me, immediately giving me the features that I possessed earlier. With the whip-like tail portion that I regained, I shot the tip of it directly towards this duplicate's neck. And faster than he could react in time against, his neck was coiled tightly a few times over by my tail, held upward to the point where his feet no longer touched the ground.

"(It's like no matter what I do, I just can't keep you down.)" Xeno pondered at the sight of this allegedly unstoppable being that he was clashing against. "(Your endurance and importunacy are much too great for me to cope with, and compliment your herculean levels of aura all too well.)"

The Xeno clone that was at my mercy decided to flail and struggle to escape from my clutches, the stress of my tailed grip compressing his windpipe overwhelming his desire to break free from me. Unfortunately for him, it was all in vain. I held on tightly to his neck, choking him and causing him to gasp for air, knowing well enough how problematic he has become for me.

In the end, I had enough of this and decided to end this clone by coiling my tail as tight as I physically could. The result of this was horrendous to the Lucario spectators, as well as both Costas and Ian—watching on at this from hundreds of feet away, lucky that they were never my target.

_**SNAP!**_

His neck _completely_ snapped in two, like a toothpick, under my power, causing both his head and his entire body to fall onto the floor in a cadaverous slump, before disappearing in a puff of smoke.

**Number of Xeno DOUBLE TEAM duplicates remaining: 10**

"(*Gulp*)" Seeing this made the primary Xeno sweat a little and swallow once, palpating his neck and feeling it grow somewhat sensitive after seeing how easily I broke the neck of his clone in cold blood.

With this clone beheaded and no longer in existence, I dropped my tail and set it behind my body, before glaring on at the Xeno clones that remained, sensing the discomfort that I put onto their psyche. Not wishing to be caught off guard again, I placed myself into a battle stance and awaited their imminent arrival.

_(Song Ends)_

"(And yet, even after the blows that we've exchanged through this prolonged clash between us,)" Xeno pondered once more, "(I've held out long enough against you, and I can still continue to fight, especially if it means putting you back into your place, where you need to be, for our sake.)"

Through his Aura Vision ability, he noted faint traces of my aura, emanating from a weapon that I wielded against him earlier, but dropped early on. He could sense, from the outline that its aura made that he could detect, that the identity of the weapon was the dual-bladed broadsword that I once had in my possession.

Seeing this weapon, he had a brainstorm on what to do to get me to stop my martial rampage once and for all, and to snap me back into my senses.

And once he formulated his initiative against me, he focused his glare on me once more, paying particularly close attention to the energy emanating from my forehead, and recalling earlier what that Xeno clone caused from me when he struck me with an AURA SPHERE.

The majority of his plan revolved around striking me decisively in the forehead. However, he would now have to reach me in a different method than what his clone did, because I was now onto them and would likely not fall victim to the same tactic. Thankfully, Xeno was by no means deterred with this task, and already pondered how he would move his pieces against me in this chess match of a battle. And to begin, he moved one piece his way.

By using TELEKINESIS and by holding his left paw out, he caused the dual-bladed broadsword to unsheathe itself from its placement on the ground and come towards him. He didn't have to face my former weapon coming towards him because his Aura Vision ability allowed him a full 360° view of his surroundings. All he did was tighten his grip and disengaged his TELEKINESIS when he felt the handle of the broadsword place itself firmly alongside his palm.

Xeno moved his left arm so that the dual-bladed broadsword was by his face, so that he could eye the sharpness and clever design of the weapon much more closely, without facing away from me in the process.

I just look on at this, ready to act against him when he comes my way.

"(And with your weapon in my paws, and a battle strategy in my mind, I will see to it that I skin this cloak off of you, and snap you back to your senses.)"

* * *

_28.2: Return to Slumber! Eduardo [Aura Dragon Cloak] vs. Xeno Lucario (Part V (5))_

Time: 3:52 PM

_Lightning Speed/Naruto Shippuden Original Soundtrack/Toshiro Masuda_

_(Song Begins)_

With his game plan now in mind, Xeno wasted no time against me in setting it into further motion. He immediately gave the order to have his ten remaining DOUBLE TEAM clones TELEPORT away from nearby him, and have them reappear elsewhere.

Before my presence, I noticed that the ten Xeno clones that warped from their earlier positions now stood around me, each of them facing me, and doing nothing else. At seeing this, I didn't retaliate against them, but I never dropped my guard against them either. I just waited for a sign of attack in their part, looking back and forth around me, locking eyes with each and every Xeno clone surrounding me, not wanting to be caught by surprise again.

Xeno, seeing my choice of martial tactics of waiting for the right moment to attack, was thankful that I suspected nothing and that this was going according to plan. He gave them the mental order to continue, and they all acted in unison.

Before my eyes, I saw that all ten Xeno clones surrounding me suddenly began to _clap_ their paws in harmony. They continued to do so, each of their bodies emanating minute amounts of psychic energy in the process. I saw this bizarre act underway and didn't understand the reasoning behind it, and I remained idle, defensive until offensively needed.

The original Xeno Lucario, from his position far away from me, smiled at my self-protective tactics, and from the fact that I knew nothing of his ulterior motives.

Not until it was too late did I suspect anything otherwise.

All of a sudden, the psychic energy of all ten of the Xeno clones surrounding them flared strongly and reached outward, enveloping me in the blink of an eye. The phenomenon occurring to me didn't cause me any physical distress. Instead, it made me feel unexplainably…hindered. It felt as though I had suddenly lost access to a vast portion of my available abilities.

"(There's more to combat than just offense and defense.)" Xeno pondered at seeing my situation. "(You need strategy and clever tactics as well, to gain the edge over your opponents.)"

Disregarding the Xeno clones ever so slightly—especially since they were still clapping their paws all around me—, I noticed that my Aura Dragon Cloak adopted one of my Elemental Aura abilities entirely on its own, and not through any control in my part. It spontaneously became the Light Green (Wind) Aura that I used during the dogfight that the Xeno clones and I engaged in earlier.

"(For example, my ENCORE technique locks my opponent into using the move that they used _earliest_ against me. And it would seem that in your case, it locks you into using _only_ the Elemental Aura attribute that you used most recently against me.)"

I attempted to swap set attributes in the same manner that I normally would, and instantly found myself unable to do so. Whatever Xeno did to me worked with aplomb, and I didn't see it coming.

"(And now that I've forced you into a temporary state of predictability, all I have to do now is exploit this attribute's weaknesses and strike when it's decisive.)"

Now I became angry at his clone's actions, and I wouldn't let them live for another second.

In moments, I saw that all of the Xeno clones surrounding me stopped using ENCORE after it had been proven successful, in my lapse unfortunately. They stopped clapping their paws altogether, and they immediately began to charge up an AURA SPHERE on their left paws. The speed at which they formed their AURA SPHERE was immediate, their aura flaring brilliantly in this battle. And rather than throw them at me, they all lunge over my way, closing the distance between us almost immediately.

However, I see this attack coming and choose to take flight by stretching out my broad wings and hastily flapping them against the wind. The result was me flying high enough into the air to evade their attack, causing the Xeno clones below me to miss their target entirely, by a fraction of a second.

And yet, despite taking flight once more, the Xeno clones below me didn't seem at all distraught of my choice of action, let alone surprised. In fact, they seemed to have _favored_ the fact that I would resort to escaping from a mob, as I had done so a few times earlier in our battle. The fact that they haven't disengaged their respective held AURA SPHEREs, as well as their facial expressions suggesting discreet smugness, was further proof of this.

Without wasting time, all ten Xeno clones below me grouped better together into a tight circle, and held their respective AURA SPHEREs outward and to each other, all placed into the center point of their physical circle. And with their aural and mental abilities, they had all ten of their AURA SPHEREs grow, and then _join_ together, forming one massive sphere of aura and psychic energy, its volume large enough to house _half_ of the ten clones responsible for conjuring it.

However, were it not for the fact that the inside of the sphere contained a dense, plum colored sparking core of GRAVITY-_intensifying_ energy, then they could attempt to house five of themselves inside.

With their AURA SPHERE techniques now having altered itself into one massive GRAVITY technique, all they had left to do was, in unison, _throw_ the sphere into the air with as much force as they could muster.

When they did so, I saw this sphere rise into the air, straight at me.

"(…_Aero Gale Wing_...!)"

And with the power of my imposing wingspan, I flapped my wings harder below me, using the power of a self-made concentrated windstorm to keep the sphere away from me. As I did this, the Xeno clones below me stepped far back, their fur fluttering in my wind. As they did this, they _still_ smiled smugly amongst themselves, meaning that whatever Xeno Lucario had planned was still going in his favor.

I just didn't know what it was, let alone did I have the idea that Xeno was _planning_ something against me this time.

Unsurprising, the GRAVITY sphere that was hoisted towards me didn't take much effort in my technique's part to bring back down to earth. When I saw that sphere of compressed psychic energy drop back down below, I stopped using my _Aero Gale Wing_ technique and smiled briefly to myself at having repelled back their move.

The Xeno clones that stepped far enough back continued to smile at their plan running smoothly. They ogled the GRAVITY sphere as it came back down to earth, watching it fall, having no motive _at all_ to catch it.

When the GRAVITY sphere inevitably fell back down onto the earth, it didn't disappear upon hitting the dirt. On the contrary, it kept going, _transcending_ the dirt, diving within it. And once it had disappeared from sight, its psychic energy dispersed across our battlefield, amplifying the gravitational pull surrounding Xeno's clones and I by _1000%_.

My immediate physical response to this was to plummet back down to earth, my wings no longer able to cope with keeping my radically increased body weight airborne. I fell back down to earth like a rock, face-down, leaving a crater in the shape of my body, directly over the area where the GRAVITY sphere disappeared into.

All of the Xeno clones surrounding me approached me once again, tolerating their body weight increasing ten-fold _much_ easier than I. The contributing factor to this is the fact that Xeno's Steel-Type constitution is already used to and _capable_ of increasing its physical density by _2000%_, as a defensive mechanism whenever he loses consciousness.

They watch on at my futile efforts at getting back upright, snickering somewhat every time my arms gave out when I tried to hoist myself upright, at my wings flapping to give me lift and then collapsing a few seconds later from fatigue. They watch on as I disengage and reengage my Light Green (Wind) Aura, in a failed attempt to switch to another attribute that could give me either the physical strength—Orange (Melee) Aura—or mental strength—Purple (Psychic) Aura—required to get back upright.

The original Xeno Lucario watched on at my attempts at getting back on my feet, sensing my inner rage building from my present state of helplessness, and hoping that I would do something chaotic, something that he could exploit.

And sure enough, what he began to sense the dragon silhouette within me roar in frustration, his hopes were coming into fruition.

The Aura Dragon Cloak that I was emanating started to grow in strength and in outward proportion, fueled by the spite that was building up within me. My wings and tail increased significantly in size, in comparison to the remainder of my aura field. My wings flapped once more, harder than ever, as I used them in conjunction with my arms and legs to hoist me back upright, slowly and steadily. The gusts that I was generating caused all ten of the Xeno clones surrounding me to slide back somewhat from the sheer force of the wind, causing them to step back to avoid losing their balance. All of them showed signs of astonishment that my commandment over the wind, through my Light Green (Wind) Aura, was mighty enough to push them back, even after their earlier use of GRAVITY had multiplied their current weight by ten.

Costas and Ian, watching on at this, couldn't believe my power and stared on in a hybridization of deep admiration and tangible trepidation.

"(Come on, Eduardo…)" Xeno Lucario, strangely enough, _cheered_ for me within the privacy of his mind, ignoring the howling of the wind entering his ears, rendering anything quieter than a jet engine mute. "(Do something hectic with your growing spite…)"

He clutched the dual-bladed broadsword tightly with his left paw, waiting for the perfect moment to strike me with it.

Surprisingly, after a tremendous display of physical willpower and proficiency with the manipulation of air, I actually got back upright. Unfortunately, that was the best that I could do with the use of the only Elemental Aura ability that I had present access to. All I could do was stand upright through the power of the wind keeping me standing and stable, unable to take a step forward without risking collapsing under my artificially increased weight.

All this did for me, Xeno's use of ENCORE to impede my power and use of GRAVITY to impede my movement, was piss me off even further.

Acting very draconic at the moment, my eyes flare further sanguine with rage as I open my mouth and let out a beastly roar, strong enough to overcome the noise of the wind that my present Elemental Aura attribute was supplementing.

And then, before Xeno, his duplicates, and my brothers, I displayed an uncanny use of the amorphous traits of aura that my Aura Dragon Cloak was emanating in _ludicrous_ levels of volume.

I caused my wings to quickly stop flapping. Then, I had them _sharply_ turn 90° forward, so that they now resembled helicopter blades rather than aviary wings. And much like a helicopter, these aura-based wings—having grown from their twenty feet wingspan to a _fifty_ feet wingspan—began to _revolve_ around my Aura Dragon Cloak, around my torso, with speeds great enough to make them look like a circular blur, even before Xeno's Aura Vision eyes.

"(…_Aero Cyclone_...!)"

With the phenomenal gales that I was already generating with my power, they all gathered around my spinning wings and rose upward under my superior authority, kicking up some of the dirt surrounding me in the process. Within seconds, the dirt followed the wind, making it visible as it continued gyrating and formed a _twister_ around me, one large enough and spinning fast enough to rival that of a stalwart F2 tornado. My presence was veiled underneath my _Aero Cyclone_ technique, and couldn't be seen by anything normal and standing level to the ground.

To be able to see me, they had to rise to the top of the tornado, whose apex is over 1,000 feet in the air.

The Xeno clones surrounding me were easily engulfed by the strong gales, and instantly assimilated into the cruelty of my _Aero Cyclone_ technique. They were all hoisted up and off of the air in a heartbeat, despite their weight coming close to reaching one ton _each_, due in part to the effects of GRAVITY influencing all of us.

Each and every clone was carried up hundreds of feet into the air by my spinning twister. They all spun around alongside the wind, growing more and more disoriented with each revolution. A few of them that had _yet_ to succumb to vertigo attempted to use TELEKINESIS to break free from my _Aero Cyclone_ technique. Unfortunately, they couldn't regain their balance or break free of my gale, and continued to spin until their vertigo caused them _all_ to pass out.

Then, rendered helpless under my gyrating power, they either collided into each other in mid-air, or were torn apart by 150 mph winds, leaving nothing of their existence behind for my technique to torture, not even any blood for my cyclone to splatter across the landscape.

_(Song Ends)_

**Number of Xeno DOUBLE TEAM duplicates remaining: 0**

Seeing this powerful windstorm, Xeno already began to assess how to overcome it and strike me. He knew that it was physically improbable for him to pierce _through_ my gale without being torn apart under the harsh winds, in much the same manner like his clones succumbed to and perished earlier.

Going under the tornado would help him get through the gale, but it would be impossible to navigate through the earth because of the lingering effects of GRAVITY, which would act on his body _much_ more fiercely underground than on the surface. And even if he did overcome the weight implanted into his body, he would be struck down by my power upon reaching my feet, if he so much as began to DIG below me.

All that was left was to go _over_ the tornado. And unlike his earlier two options, this one had the highest likelihood of success, but only if he didn't make a mistake. He could enter the tornado from above and navigate his way down towards me and be able to strike me with all of his might, so long as he stayed at the center of the revolving winds in order to avoid being caught by them.

"(All right then,)" Xeno inhaled once to calm himself, and focused his energy _purely_ for offense, having his body begin to radiate a red aura that was contained _inside_ of his body rather than outside, much like a light bulb within a lamp shade. "(My time to strike is now.)"

_Strong and Strike/Naruto Original Soundtrack/Toshiro Masuda_

_(Song Begins)_

With my dual-bladed broadsword now firmly held in his left paw, he held it outward and pointed it directly towards me in a swift battle stance. And in an instant, the red aura that his body was emanating from the inside _fragmented_ and flew outward from his body, as though it were shattered glass spreading outward in all directions, before it faded away into the air a few feet off from departing him. The result of the use of this SHELL SMASH technique—a technique that sacrifices defensive properties for both offensive _and_ speed properties—was immediate when it translated to his overall power.

In moments, the invisible aura field surrounding his body erupted forth in blazing glory, engulfing him in its power, spreading out _twice_ as far from his body—over six feet from any point from his body—than the demonstration with his SHELL SMASH technique implied. And the instant that this sudden surge of power made itself present, the entire earth snapped and shook once in a brief tremor, causing a crater ring to form around the hard soil that Xeno stood on top of. His fur coat shuffled temporarily from this surge of power before settling back to normal. And for a brief moment, his golden eyes gleamed _more_ golden before settling back to normal.

Xeno quickly tucked his sword closer to his body, and then used FLY to soar, directly towards the zenith of my _Aero Cyclone_ technique. His earlier use of SHELL SMASH gave him the emulative appearance of a shooting star, ascending upwards into the sky, as though he became an identifiable bright light in an ocean of darkness, unhindered by a force as feeble as GRAVITY.

Both Costas and Ian watched on at this rising star make his brief trek towards the peak of my whirlwind, unable to contain their astonishment at seeing such powerful combatants clash against each other, and feeling temporarily detached from their physical beings, their minds fully dedicated onto this once-in-a-lifetime event.

Xeno only took a few seconds to reach the highest point of my revolving gale, and immediately positioned himself directly above the eye of the storm. From his height, he could see me still standing on the floor, playing it safe by choosing not to take a step against Xeno's earlier amplification of GRAVITY, and simply remain within my raging wind-based technique.

"(Still acting defensively I suppose, in your choice to remain inside of this wind bulwark…)" Xeno pondered, with a mild sense of relief.

Holding my dual-bladed broadsword with _both_ paws grasping the hilt now, he focused all of his emanating power directly into the weapon. The result of this was his aura field departing from him and transferring over into the broadsword, amplifying the shape of the blade and enlarging it with an aura field surrounding it. Once the transfer was complete, Xeno now wielded a blade that had grown to over twelve feet in length, with the curved shape and _sharpness_ of a saber.

Before commencing the final phase of his initiative, he eyed the enlarged blade that he now wielded, eyeing the silver-colored steel that resided within a twelve-foot-long, saber-shaped aura field. His mind briefly drifted into a moment in time a few years earlier in his life, where he still worked under the name "Team Liberator". He recalled the moment in time where this technique placed itself firmly into, but chose to keep the memory dull rather than clear, because of his present situation with me.

"(SACRED SWORD, a technique that I learned from the Swords of Justice, during my dispersion and training of those liberated Pokémon from Team Rocket Main Headquarters.)" Xeno stopped pondering of his past and focused on this technique and why he selected to use it. "(Its unusual properties to _bypass_ the opponent's stat changes make it unanimously fitting for me to use here.)"

He continued to eyeball me from above, noting that I haven't sense his presence at all, and showed the least bit interested in doing so. Upon knowing that this was as perfect a time to strike me as ever, Xeno disengaged his use of FLY and plummeted down into the eye of the gale storm.

As he began to fall directly towards me, he rotated his body forward and front-flipped as he dropped from the sky. His rotation speed grew greater and greater as he fell, to the point where the blade of the massive SACRED SWORD that he wielded outward resembled a rotating _buzz saw_ rather than a sword, with a dark blue-furred core as its brandisher.

It wasn't until Xeno was practically _over_ my head that I shifted my eyes above me. And when I did so, all that could see was a blurred, gyrating cobalt-colored figure, descending from the sky, falling as fast as a meteorite when the Earth's gravitational pull prevents its escape and draws it in.

From my brothers' perspective, all they could hear was a sudden impact on the floor, one that reverberated across the vicinity with a low-pitched shockwave, as though a bomb had detonated, but without the initial sight of the explosion. And then, after they heard the sound, they saw my _Aero Cyclone_ technique begin to dissipate, the winds departing back into their basic atmospheric equilibrium, and the dirt beginning to fall back down and settle back where it more or less belonged.

Both of my brothers were able to see what had resulted from this predicament. They saw Xeno Lucario still standing upright, holding onto the dual-bladed broadsword—that was originally in my possession—with his left paw. The tip of that sword was firmly rested on the crown of my head, the rest of me collapsed on the floor, face-down once again, with my Aura Dragon Cloak no longer in existence.

Fearing the worst for me, both Costas and Ian ran over to Xeno location.

_(Song Ends)_

* * *

_28.3: A Fight to Remember! Eduardo vs. Xeno Lucario (Part VI (6)): Finale_

Time: 4:03 PM

The dirt that my earlier _Aero Cyclone_ technique uprooted continued to fall back down on the floor, in bits and pieces no larger than a pebble, the winds triple-digit revolving speed preventing the dirt from clinging onto each other for too long a time. The bits of raining dirt fell upon both Xeno and I in random quantities in time, the speed and force at which the dirt fell upon the two of us would rival that of a small hail storm.

Not that any of this mattered to either Xeno or I at the moment.

In my case, I was just rendered unconscious, in _every_ sense of the word this time, rather than placed in a "sleepwalking" state of unconsciousness that I've encumbered Xeno with fighting against, that I've endangered Xeno's life in trying to subdue. I felt no pain right now, and posed no threat.

Xeno didn't feel any pain either, from the dirt raining down upon him, only because his body was temporarily rendered physically numb after the _tremendous_ amount of power he had to gather in order to subdue my Aura Dragon Cloak. The monumental effort involved in his part left him panting heavily, mouth agape as his lungs worked overtime in resupplying his tired body with oxygen. He couldn't even feel the comforting grip of the hilt of my dual-bladed broadsword. He was only able to see that he was holding it, and—more importantly—what he just _did_ with it.

Before his eyes, he could see the tip of my sword—the _actual_ tip rather than the aura-based one that enveloped and evolved the weapon earlier—placed on top of, but not _penetrating_, the crown of my head.

"(Unbelievable that you, a human being, can demand so much of my power in my attempts to _finally_ stop you from running amok.)"

Xeno was unable to move a muscle until he regained the feeling of his body. He didn't even feel his dreadlock-like appendages fall back down from the force of Earth's _normal_ gravity—the effects of Xeno's earlier use of GRAVITY having worn off recently. He simply noticed that his ability to see the aura around him departed from use, his eyes returning from an enhanced gold to their normal red.

"(And yet, even with all of that power that I just displayed moments ago, all I managed to inflict upon you was _smack_ you on the head with my SACRED SWORD technique. That unnatural dragon-shaped aura field of yours absorbed most—but not _all_—of my directed energy, and prevented me from ingraining my blade into your brain. The rest of the energy from my attack, much to my physical relief, was enough for me to bypass your aura bulwark and discombobulate you back into this definitive state of unconsciousness.)"

In time, Xeno's sense of touch recovered and he could move again, albeit with mild restraint because this battle rendered the vast majority of his body with a dull, aching pain. He pulled his left arm back, pointing the broadsword away from me in the process, before tossing the blade aside to his left side, letting it tumble a bit on the ground before eventually coming to rest a dozen feet away.

Both of my brothers stopped short of where the broadsword was now resting, and simply retrieved it, watching on from this distance at both Xeno and I, knowing well enough that this type of situation was between two beings with power that they can't possibly hope to comprehend.

Within moments, Xeno could hear me groaning and see me stirring as I begin to wake up from my state of unconsciousness.

Xeno already knew that there was no longer an element of danger from me, and watched on as I began to rise back up.

My progress at getting back on my feet was gradual. But when I did so, I stood strong and upright, my balance relatively unaffected by the damage and fatigue that I've endured. The sclera of my eyes no longer retained that piercing red glare than they had earlier, and returned to their normal white—_fully_ white for my left eye and with an ash-black iris on my right eye. My right hand was rubbing the crown of my head, sore from an impact that Xeno inflicted upon me earlier.

Seeing my normality returned filled Xeno with an overwhelming sense of relief, almost enough to overcome the present condition of his body.

"_It's great to see you back to normal, Eduardo._" He said to me with a small smile.

I set my right arm to my side after rubbing my aching head and take into account Xeno's physical condition. From my perspective, his fur showed signs of mild dirt clinging stubbornly to scattered areas of his body. He also possessed a few bruises and swelling of areas, the most notable one being around his nose. Before my eyes, it appeared ever so slightly _rounder_ than usual.

Of course, from what Xeno was seeing of me, he could tell that I possessed a similar share of physical imperfections after our epic clash.

Hearing Xeno's words, I understood the hidden message behind them…

"You say that as though something _happened_ to me."

…And Xeno understood the hidden message within mine.

"_You mean you don't remember our earlier skirmish?_"

I crossed my arms—paying only a brief amount of attention to my sleeveless right arm—and looked away to ponder recent events. It only took me a couple of seconds to look back at Xeno and tell him this.

"All I remember is you forcing me into an artificial state of slumber." I recalled. "And then after that, it was just a blur of colors in the visible spectrum, before I found myself waking up right here and now."

Xeno could understand how I could see a blur of colors while under the influence of the Aura Dragon Cloak, especially if he imagined swapping sides with me. What he didn't understand was that I mentioned "a blur of colors", and then state that I had no memory of using that power in the first place.

"_Can't you try to remember?_" Xeno suggested.

"I can try to…" I suggested, beginning to show curiosity over my earlier actions, actions that I had next to no inkling of.

And then, when I highlighted an earlier important memory within my mind, I chose to look up, recalling how I had let loose two of my twenty-six S3-OSS devices _before_ we even began our battle—the "Moon Ball" S3-OSS.H and the "Luxury Ball" S3-OSS.T. They continued to hover stagnantly, thousands of feet over our heads, nothing more than glimmering specs in the blue sky to the trained eyes.

"…But I'd have better luck reviewing the footage of our earlier actions."

After my words, I reached for my S2-PTSDOv.2 device within its respective holster and accessed the recorded information that both the S3-OSS.H and S3-OSS.T devices recorded in unison, only having to piece together the footage that they each recorded from their respective targets—one targeting me and the other targeting Xeno Lucario. It only took me mere seconds to reconfigure my recorded footage—our entire battle, up until this hiatus. And once I had done so, it now existed for my viewing pleasure, The top screen of my Different System displaying me, and the bottom screen of my Different System displaying the Aura Pokémon.

Costas, Ian, and Xeno proceeded over to my side to watch what I was watching. I didn't pay enough attention to their presence and focused entirely on my handheld device, and what secrets it had recorded and stored within its pseudo-infinite databanks.

Starting from the very beginning of our battle, I merely fast-forwarded through the areas that I already experienced consciously, skipping ahead until I reached the point where Xeno felt it appropriate to end this match by placing me in an artificially-induced, hypnotic slumber. I continued to watch on, feeling my inner body cringe at the chain of Xeno's ruthless attacks dealt on my body.

And then I watched the moment where my power grew greater than I ever thought was possible of me, revealing a vicious side of me that I didn't know I possessed.

Xeno, watching on at my widened facial expression, knew that I was now seeing what I did _without_ _remembering_ what it was that I did.

Through my technological looking glass, I could see myself placed into a self-defensive, active state of unconsciousness, becoming a martial "sleep-walker" with full control over Elemental Aura. I could see my aura flare in the twelve different attributes that I had acquired through experience— Red (Fire) Aura, Orange (Melee) Aura, Yellow (Lightning) Aura, Light Green (Wind) Aura, Green (Healing) Aura, Dark Green (Nature) Aura, Light Blue (Ice) Aura, Blue (Water) Aura, Purple (Psychic) Aura, Brown (Earth) Aura, White (Light) Aura, and Black (Darkness) Aura.—, each and every one of them spiraling around my body in beautiful and vigorous harmony, illuminating my body with this vibrant color spectrum, even as my aura field expanded outward and amorphously transmogrified into the exact shape of a _dragon_.

"(Aura-based wings and an aura-based tail, in the exact same dimensions as that of my white-scaled second body…)" I pondered, seeing this earlier image of myself stand like a quadruped, locked on towards Xeno and then charging towards him, giving him a literal _hell_ of a fight, one that spread all across the landscape, even entering the Red Sea and the sky at times.

And nothing that Xeno appeared to do to me could stop me, because I proved highly resilient to his actions, recovering from damage that he inflicted upon me, the most notable of this being when I severed off my own right arm, and regenerated it pristinely with my Green (Healing) Aura.

"(And alongside this, an aura-based pair of forward-facing horns…)"

Within the Different System's two screens, I noted a few cruel actions I committed towards Xeno, in all of their unhindered brutality that my earlier state of being allotted me. I saw myself landing directly onto Xeno, crushing his upper chest and respiratory organs, before that Xeno revealed itself to be a SUBSTITUTE and disappeared. I viewed myself restrain two DOUBLE TEAM clones—one with my bare hands and the other with my aura-based tail—before whirling them around me like a released toy top. I observed my aura-based tail restrain a Xeno doppelganger by the neck before crushing it to nothingness, causing both remaining halves of his body to topple onto the ground and fade away. And lastly, I watched myself rend ten Xeno clones with a tornado that I generated with my locked Light Green (Wind) Aura.

"(What is this…Aura Dragon Cloak?)" I pondered in bewilderment.

Once the recorded footage reached the moment where I regained my normality and conversed with Xeno, I stashed my S2-PTSDOv.2 device away and took notice of my brothers and Xeno's presence by my sides, staring on at them—Xeno in particular—with an uncanny blend of both guilt and uncertainty.

"Do you remember now, Eduardo?" Ian asked. "Do you remember those…actions of yours?"

I stepped back a bit from between them and held a hand to my forehead, feeling a mild headache surface within my mind, alongside memories of the situation that I originally thought were nothing but a blur of twelve colors, the colors of the Elemental Aura abilities at my present disposal.

"I don't know what to feel of the matter," I began, my eyes squinting at the pain and the realization resurfacing. "But, after looking at my actions from a third-person perspective, I can feel myself growing more and more…_comfortable_…with what I did."

Xeno understood the confusion pounding away within my head, mostly because he endured something similar to this, back when he came to the full understanding that the hooded figure and I shared virtually equal facial appearances.

Nevertheless, that didn't stop him from prodding into this topic out of curiosity.

"_How did you even come to access that…that…_"

"Aura Dragon Cloak?" I stated the name that I wished to used to classify this bizarre power of mine.

"_Yes, that. How did you come to utilizing it in the first place?_"

The headache that I was feeling began to dull, and became nothing more than a lingering shadow of what it once was. My hand no longer needed to be on my forehead.

"I honestly have no idea."

"Take a gamble on the topic." Costas suggested. "Don't you have any rough idea relating to that bizarre feat of yours, and yours _alone_?"

In favor of Costas's implication, I formulated one idea that might best explain this earlier phenomenon of mine.

"I can only speculate on the subject, but my best hypothesis is this: What I unconsciously accessed within myself was a martial self-defense mechanism, one taken into effect—under the stimulus that was Xeno's clash with me—by the inner white-scaled dragon entity that I recently realized existed within me and reacquainted myself with."

My brothers just looked at me as though they faintly regretted showing curiosity on the subject, confused slightly more on the inquiry that the three of them asked of me.

Xeno however, replied with this belief in mind.

"_We should just conclude that this is just one of those_ _random_ _occurrences that we won't perfectly understand, and that we should just drop the subject already, to spare us the incomprehension it's giving us._"

"Agreed," Ian said.

"Alright," Costas said almost simultaneously with his brother.

I just nodded in response to Xeno.

"(For now…)" I set aside the subject.

About a minute of silence passed amongst all of us, enough time for the tension of the matter to dissipate from our minds and from our emotions. And once it did, I faced Xeno with a lighter countenance.

"I didn't leave any lasting injuries on you, did I?"

Xeno, when he took into account our share of damage, hid within him the astonishment that the two of us came out of it without seriously harming each other. Despite our great power crashing into each other during our battle, we proved to be surprisingly even when we collided, balanced when we shared blow for blow.

"_The only thing that's lasting on me after our clash is a mild adrenaline rush over how _thrilling_ it was to fight you at such an unrestricted level of power, at fighting an opponent that I can give my all against._"

Much to my better nature of harming living wildlife, I felt strangely _similar_ to Xeno, albeit much calmer over the matter, mostly because the adrenaline rush I might've had earlier is already gone. The nature that I had against harming wonders of nature, because of Xeno's earlier actions upon me, has now been loosened considerably, now becoming better controlled for matters that _require_ it to disengage, such as whenever I face Xeno in a sparring match.

"_Do you feel the same way?_" Xeno inquired.

"With your help actually, I do." I responded sincerely.

"_And do you feel like you can still continue to fight?_" Xeno inquired again. "_Because personally, I feel as though I still have a little vigor left in me._"

Within my mind, I analyzed how my body was feeling presently, from how my individual muscles felt, to how much aura I felt I still possessed to use for battle.

"I can still go on," I said confidently.

Both Costas and Ian, upon hearing our statements, stepped into the conversation.

"You two should keep on fighting in your sparring match," Ian suggested.

"Especially since we haven't decided on a clear victor yet," Costas added.

From their hands, I retrieve my dual-bladed broadsword by the hilt and hold it to my side, the blade end facing down rather than up to show that it's not intended to be used.

"_So it's agreed then,_" Xeno smiled. "_Our sparring match is still ongoing._"

"Only until a victor is decided," I nod before him in agreement.

* * *

Time: 4:15 PM

Right after my words, the four of us reset ourselves to our normal positions the moment _before_ we began our sparring match.

Both Costas and Ian, as they were already doing so before, resumed their roles as the referees of this match, waiting to make the call on who falls first and who remains standing, who claims victory and who bows before defeat, who can physically go on, and who can not.

_Dreams of an Absolution (LB vs. JS Remix)/Sonic the Hedgehog Vocal Traxx: Several Wills/LB (Remix Factory) & Jun Senoue_

_(Song Begins)_

_[Opening Instrumental]_

From my starting position—once again about fifty feet away from Xeno and with my back turned to him—, I take a moment to access my inventory. From my S1-GS device, I deposit my dual-bladed broadsword—partially thankful that it wasn't destroyed by Xeno's two paws, much like my Gauntlet Shield.

And in exchange for depositing this weapon, I retrieve a new eye patch to place over my blank and blind left eye, alongside my Penta-dent Mark II—an eight-foot-long, five pronged spear with a sword on the other end—, the very same weapon that I used to fight against that black-scaled winged dragon over a decade ago.

_(Of an absolution)_

_[Instrumental]_

From his respective starting position and with his back turned to me, Xeno focused his aura to channel some of the environmental aura surrounding him, replenishing his reserves just enough to help him get through this second round between he and I. And in the process, he channels frigid energy in his left paw, alongside sparking electricity in his right paw, utilizing both ICE PUNCH and THUNDERPUNCH simultaneously.

Despite his better martial instincts, he chooses _not_ to resort to his Aura Vision ability for extrasensory aid once more, mostly because he's exhausted himself from using it earlier against me when I was enveloped in my Aura Dragon Cloak. Using it now would just leave him with a headache, one that the extra blood pressure coursing through his brain and eyes would amplify.

Once we were both ready, we both faced each other with our weapons in hand, my Penta-dent Mark II held firmly in both hands and Xeno's ICE PUNCH/THUNDERPUNCH combination emanating from each of his paws. We both bowed respectively to each other from our starting positions, and then we each formed a battle stance. I twirled my Penta-dent Mark II alongside my wrists for a few revolutions before setting it to my side, holding it as I would a spear, with the five-pronged spear end facing Xeno. Xeno cracked his knuckles, causing electrical sparks and frigid energy to fly with each rhythmic snap.

_(And you'll see)_

_(Of an absolution)_

And then, simultaneously, we ran straight towards each other yet again, closing our distance in a heartbeat. Each of us once again attempted to strike at each other, Xeno by throwing a few jabs my way and me thrusting and swiping my weapon his way. Through our conflict, we both did succeed in striking each other with our brandished weapons, but not decisively. At best we only made contact during the moment when we parried the attack away.

_In the nightlight, do you see what you dream?_

_All your troubles, are they all what they seem?_

In Xeno's case, his electrified and ice-covered fists made contact with me, but only on the elongated shaft of my Penta-dent Mark II, and were quickly warded off by my rapid back-to-back movements of each end of my weapon. In my case, Xeno's evasiveness proved dexterous enough for him to narrowly slip out of the way of a thrust or swing of my weapon, even shoving the spear end away a few times before jabbing at me.

_Look around you, then you may realize_

_All the preachers, all with their lies_

Be that as it may seem, an opening would eventually present itself that can be taken full advantage of.

At one point, when Xeno swatted away my weapon, I couldn't bring it close enough to my center to defend myself, and Xeno jabbed me with his right paw, directly on my midsection, where my diaphragm is. The electrical sensation that Xeno's technique dispersed into me made me feel as though my muscles became unresponsive to my brain's nerve input, and were rendered numb and paralyzed.

Xeno stepped back somewhat, feeling as though his THUNDERPUNCH technique inflicted paralysis upon me.

_And I might know of our future_

_But then you still control the past_

"(Can…hardly…move…)" I pondered, feeling my muscles seize and having difficulty moving them. "(Must…resort…to…)"

Before Xeno's eyes, he could see my body began to radiate faint amounts of Yellow (Lightning) Aura, an attribute of my Elemental Aura that he already recognizes as my decided archetype for electricity. And knowing well enough from our earlier skirmish just what I'm capable of with my control of electricity…

"_Don't you dare!_"

…He lunged forward with his left paw, striking me in the diaphragm with ICE PUNCH this time, and delivering his technique's full force upon my body, before stepping back to watch me freeze solid.

_Only you now if you'll be together_

_Only you know if we shall last_

Within my frozen chrysalis, my Yellow (Lightning) Aura no longer coursed across my body, because I no longer needed it to remove Xeno's inflicted paralysis. However, now I had to deal with the result of Xeno's second technique _completely_ freezing over my body and restricting my movement. I couldn't move my weapon to break apart my icy prison because it was frozen within this block of ice alongside me, and I couldn't move a muscle at _all_, not even my lower jaw to so much as _chatter my teeth_ from the frigidity of my hell freezing over.

_[Instrumental]_

So I thought fast and utilized a more _mental_ approach rather than a useless physical tactic.

Before Xeno's eyes, he could see my body begin to radiate Purple (Psychic) Aura, the energy from this attribute transcending over the cryogenic coat that Xeno bestowed upon me, causing the ice itself to adopt a radiant clear blue and violet hue that can compare itself to the northern lights over the arctic.

"(_Psycho Blast_!)"

_(Of an absolution)_

And then, with a sharp burst of psychic energy directed outward from my body, the ice surrounding me cracked under my pressure and shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces, all of them still shining a dazzling hybridization of an ethereal blue and an overpowering mauve, before it all vaporized over the grass by the sun's light within seconds.

_In the nightlight, do you still feel your pain?_

_For the valor you wait, it never came_

Upon seeing this, Xeno just smiled at my resourcefulness and somersaulted back a few dozen feet from my position, giving himself some room from me.

Still emanating Purple (Psychic) Aura, but now free to continue fighting without physical restraint. I channeled my Elemental Aura energy from my body and directly into my Penta-dent Mark II, causing it to glow purple alongside me.

And then with proficiency, I swung my weapon forward, bringing each head of the weapon in front of me in tandem, the Purple (Psychic) Aura leaving the weapon in the form of crescent-shaped projectiles of psychic energy, all of them flying off towards Xeno's placement.

_If you were able, would you go change the past,_

_To mend a faux pas with one last chance?_

"(_Psycho Blade_!)" My mind echoed as I fired over twenty individual projectiles within about ten seconds.

Xeno could see these lilac-colored blades fired from my enchanted Penta-dent Mark II, all of them in close proximity of each other, all of them homing in on him.

"_Anything you can do, I can do better._"

In moments, Xeno's fists no longer emanated electricity and glacial energy, and he no longer used ICE PUNCH and THUNDERPUNCH. Instead, upon Xeno's command, they began to emanate psychic energy, similar to my own, originating from the tips of his paws and reaching just short of his shoulders.

With his arms enveloped in psychic energy, he held them outward from his body, and swung them in a similar fashion to what I did with my held weapon, firing off just as many PSYCHO CUT blades as I did in just as short of time as I did.

_And I might know of our future_

_But then you still control the past_

Our similar technique quickly collided in mid-air upon reaching each other, the vast majority of them impacting each other and disappearing in between our respective locations. Only a few of them from each of us made it through this miniscule warzone and straight for their intended targets.

They came too quickly for us to stop firing off more blades of psychic energy and defend properly, and inevitably struck us across the front of our bodies, striking hard enough to lacerate us upon their impact, knock us off of our feet, and disengage the auras that we were emanating earlier.

The two of us could feel blood be drawn from the stricken areas of our bodies, but the exact amount of hemorrhaging was mild, mostly because of our physical dispositions. Xeno's body, because of his Steel-Type attribute, possessed metallic properties and proved resilient to most forms of damage. My clothing, because of the Auracite lacing through the polyester fabric, gave it armor-like properties and absorbed most of the damage, leaving only a mild amount of it to carry on through my clothing and cut into me.

In the end, the two of us got back on our feet as though we were only pushed down, with looks of admiration on our faces.

_Only you know if you'll be together_

_Tonight_

"Excellent technique, Xeno," I stated. "There was enough power put into it to transcend my Auracite-laced clothing and draw blood."

"_Likewise Eduardo,_" Xeno stated, having nothing to add that sounded any different than what I already said.

In seconds, the Aura Pokémon took flight by using FLY. And as soon as I wedged my eight-foot long spear/sword staff to my back, within the "X" that my sashes formed, I followed shortly behind him in hot pursuit.

_'Cause every night I will save your life_

_And every night I will be with you_

"(_Pyro Thruster_!)"

By triggering Red (Fire) Aura and ejecting blazing energy from my palms and feet—facing down towards the earth—I formed the derivative of rocket thrusters that carried me into the air. And by manipulating the angle of my hands and feet, I effortlessly oriented my direction on a dime, easily able to keep up with Xeno.

It wasn't long until another dogfight ensued between the two of us.

_'Cause every night I still lay awake_

_And I dream of an absolution_

Xeno, seeing my use of Red (Fire) Aura, quickly connected it to allowing me to wield pyrokinesis. And rather than combat against it, he would fight me with fire of his own.

As I came within dozens of feet to reaching him, Xeno inhaled and exhaled rapidly while facing me, firing off one concentrated ball of fire straight at me, in the form of FLAME BURST.

The attack, upon reaching halfway between us, _fragmented_ itself in mid-flight, splitting apart from one medium-sized fireball into thirty smaller fireballs, all of them whistling harshly across the air, all of them still carrying the momentum that their original carried, but now possessed a dispersion pattern that made them _much_ more difficult to avoid.

_'Cause every night I will make it right_

_And every night I will come to you_

"Fighting fire with fire, I see."

With dexterity, some of the FLAME BURST fireballs that zipped my way were narrowly avoided. Some however were traveling too fast or too closely together to avoid properly, and I channeled combustible energy within my hands, while my feet kept me airborne with their red-hot propulsion.

"(_Pyro Sphere_!)"

Holding a sphere of refined fire within each of my palms, I fired them in front of me with palm thrusts, towards some of the FLAME BURST scattershot that came my way, effortlessly causing them both to explode into nothingness upon their airborne contact. With this action, I was able to fire a _Pyro Sphere_ in tandem, while simultaneously recharging in one hand and firing another one with my other hand, and even evade where needed by barrel-rolling to my sides, until the entirety of the attack passed by me in its entirety.

_But every night it just stays the same_

_In my dream of an absolution_

_[Instrumental]_

Unfortunately for me, with my attention practically _exclusively_ directed on Xeno's widely dispersed FLAME BURST technique, I failed to notice a fire-cloaked Xeno encroach my space and HEAT CRASH head-first into my abdomen, stunning me and causing the both of us to descend at an angle, hundreds of feet from the air, back into the Red Sea.

The two of us splashed into the surface of the Red Sea and kept going under, the water immediately turning Xeno's HEAT CRASH fire cloak into rising steam and my Red (Fire) Aura to raise the water within a couple of feet from my body to just above boiling point.

Naturally, to avoid injuring himself from the spike in heat, Xeno swam back and away from me, before dog paddling up towards the surface. I did the same when I felt the need to breathe, which was irritatingly premature because of Xeno impacting my abdomen and disrupting my diaphragm's natural rhythm.

_(Of an absolution)_

Within moments, both Xeno and I surface from the water, and manipulate our respective auras to allow us to stand on top of the water again. Xeno manipulates the flow of aura surrounding his feet to emulate air cushions that float above the surface, and successfully stood atop of the water, never once losing his balance or wobbling from the rocking waves that the sea's wind stirred. I converted my Red (Fire) Aura to Blue (Water) Aura and used my proficiency over water to stand upright as well, displaying brilliant balance alongside the Aura Pokémon.

Once again, the two of us faced each other. Xeno stared on at me with his trademark sanguine glare, and I responded to this by brandishing my Penta-dent Mark II once more before him. Neither of us displayed antagonism over each other, but neither of us displayed submission to defeat either.

_In the nightlight, do you see what you dream?_

_All your triumph and all you'll never be?_

With the water splashing back over our might, the two of us rushed towards each other as we had done so before. However, rather than run towards the opponent—as I was doing—, Xeno enveloped himself in water and glided over towards me with AQUA JET once again.

His straightforward trajectory was easy enough for me to evade at the right time. With nothing more than a minute transfer of Blue (Water) Aura towards the sword-tip of my Penta-dent Mark II, I was able to plant it into the water and use it to pole vault me over an AQUA JET Xeno Lucario, missing him by mere inches. I landed back on the water, gripping my weapon tightly in my hands, and did an about-face as I hydroplaned over the water ever so briefly, seeing Xeno continue on with Aqua Jet until he dived down into the Red Sea with it.

_Look around you, then you may realize_

_Happiness lies trapped in misery_

The next time that I saw him resurface, it was when he had channeled great power within himself. With his aura flashing brilliantly, he commanded the water before his feet to rise tall and wide from the surface, much like an underwater earthquake would do to create a tsunami. And with this wave towering over me—with himself at the top—, he commanded it forward, with the intent to swamp me with SURF.

_And who knows what of our future_

_We can all try to change our past_

Knowing how to defend against this imposing body of water, I held my Penta-dent Mark II with both hands, directly in the center of the weapon. And with this position implicated to my weapon, I directed my Blue (Water) Aura towards my weapon, and honed the Blue (Water) Aura emanating from me simultaneously. With this extra boost in power in conjunction with the new positioning of my weapon, I held the weapon above my head and spun the spear/sword over my head as though it were a propeller.

_Only you know if you'll be together_

_Tonight (Tonight)_

"(_Hydro Dome_!)"

The result of this allowed the water to elevate around me and envelop me in a thick sphere of water, one that held fast and protected me against Xeno's SURF attack as it rolled over me.

_'Cause every night I will save your life_

_And every night I will be with you_

With the giant wave settling back down into the water, Xeno descended alongside it until he was as level with the water as I was. He turned to face me, about forty feet away from my position, and saw my _Hydro Dome_ technique recede back into the water as well, before I stopped spinning my Penta-dent Mark II by its center and held it in a battle stance before Xeno when I confirmed his presence.

Seeing how a massive body of water was easily transcended by my power through condensed water, Xeno contemplated a different tactic of hitting me, by using water in a much greater density.

Before my eyes, I could see Xeno hold his palms out from his body, a sphere of water beginning to form between his paws, the water itself rising from the Red Sea and collecting into this sphere, all through his abilities of telekinesis. And as I watched, I noticed that the water that continued to gather and become assimilated into this sphere did _not_ make the sphere grow in size. Instead, in favor of Xeno's motives, rather than growing larger, it grew much _denser_, eventually to the point where it was beginning to put a strain on Xeno's mind, a strong sign that it was time to fire HYDRO CANNON at me.

_'Cause every night I still lake awake_

_And I dream of an absolution_

Sensing this technique of his as a bad omen, I took this opportunity of his formulation of his attack as the best moment for me to develop my response to it. With my Blue (Water) Aura still emanating strongly, I directed its energy to begin to flow around me, as though it were forming a miniature waterspout by my feet. In the process, I also drew my Penta-dent Mark II close to my center, having it placed perfectly parallel to my body, the five-pronged spear end remaining a full two feet above my head, while the sword end rested on the surface of the water, just by my feet.

_'Cause every night I will make it right_

_And every night I will come to you_

"_Dodge this!_"

A massive reaction to the energy of Xeno's HYDRO CANNON technique caused the water behind his back to explode and reach fifty feet outward in all direction, before he slid back on the water about an equal amount. His HYDRO CANNON technique, with his telekinetic abilities in full support of its manufacturing—borderline to their limits—fired the dense sphere of water forward towards me, as if it had been fired by an actual _cannon_ instead of Xeno's own brain power. Xeno's HYDRO CANNON projectile fired straight and true, easily reaching hurricane wind speed as it flied towards me, the water by the surface of the Red Sea parting widely in its wake, when the aqueous projectile zipped just overhead of it.

_But every night it just stays the same_

_In my dream of an absolution_

"(_Hydro Drill_!)"

With a corkscrew turn in my leap forward, the water that I had premeditatedly swirl around me carried over into the air when my entirety left the surface of the water. The water, much like Xeno's preceding AQUA JET technique, immediately enveloped my entire body, and streaked behind me in my intended path, as I flew forward with my body angled parallel to the surface of the water.

_'Cause every night I will save your life_

_And every night I will be with you_

However, that's where the similarities between our two techniques end. Because with my twisting motion supplemented alongside my Blue (Water) Aura rotating the water around me, when I leapt into the air, I spun along my center, like a drill, the water following suit alongside me, forming a sharp cone of spiraling water that I resided in the center of. The spear end of my weapon was intentionally placed at the apex of my technique, giving the water its aerodynamics, conical shape, gyration…

…and _piercing_ capabilities.

_'Cause every night I still lay awake_

_And I dream of an absolution_

Both Xeno's HYDRO CANNON technique and me within my _Hydro Drill_ technique, after gliding over the water for almost a second, collided in mid-air, and retained our posture over the surface of the Red Sea, our momentum keeping us airborne. Xeno's HYDRO CANNON technique, with its mass compacted into a sphere of water no larger than a basketball, but with greater mass than a _wrecking_ ball, held fast against the drilling motion of my _Hydro Drill_ technique, unmoved at my nauseating spiraling motion.

However, because of the nature of my technique acting strongly over that of Xeno's technique, my technique gradually began to outmatch the stalemate and leaned the odds over into my favor.

Within moments, Xeno's HYDRO CANNON projectile could no longer retain its spherical shape, and splattered across the Red Sea battlefield, allowing me to continue moving forward, unhindered, towards a fatigued Aura Pokémon.

_'Cause every night I will make it right_

_And every night I will come to you_

Xeno, like a dog left outside to bake in the summer sun, panted from the strain of using a demanding technique.

"_…Impressive, Eduardo…_" He struggled mildly to put his words into his present emotions.

From my perspective, there was no time for talking, mostly because it would only come out as a warbled maze of counterclockwise-spinning aquatic turbulence. All that mattered to me at this moment were actions.

When Xeno felt his wearing energy returning to him, he immediately channeled his psychic energy into a protective, impermeable dome that he resided within, bracing himself for my impact with his reliable PROTECT technique.

His technique couldn't have arrived any sooner in his favor. Because, in only a split-second, I had caught up to him and was drilling him with water in the same way that I was earlier with his HYDRO CANNON technique.

_But every night it just stays the same_

_In my dream of an absolution_

Because Xeno was now within his own protective barrier rather than directly standing on the surface of the water, he slid back as I continued moving forward. The two of us continued moving forward under my momentum, until the two of us were no longer on the Red Sea, and were now gliding over the grass of the land, the water from my _Hydro Drill_ technique never leaving my side, so long as my present Elemental Aura attribute continued supporting it.

_[Instrumental]_

Xeno, sensing that his PROTECT maneuver would no longer hold for a much longer period of time, thought quickly on how to stop me. The instance that his bulwark vanished, he grounded his paws into the earth, slowing down his momentum, all while quickly causing both of his paws to become engulfed in fire. And rather than use FIRE PUNCH to strike me, he used it instead to _grasp_ my weapon by the base of the spear end, evading the spinning sharpness of the metal in the process.

And then as soon as he had surprisingly slowed _both_ of us down to a halt, with his incredible physical strength, he held on tight to my weapon, and spun it around himself in a circle, rapidly, with me carried along for the ride, for a few revolutions.

"(What in the…?)" I pondered in disbelief at how a Pokémon that was both _smaller and lighter_ than me could keep me over the ground with centripetal force.

His physical might proved great enough to stop my _Hydro Drill_ technique and forced the water surrounding me to scatter in all directions, watering the flora by our feet in the process. And as he continued to spin, all the more faster, I appeared more and more like a blue streak of light orbiting around a _dark_ blue center point, my vertigo growing more and more until I felt my grip on my weapon slip and I was sent flying in the direction that I let go.

_(Of an absolution)_

_[Instrumental]_

Xeno, knowing that the weight he was swinging earlier has considerably lessened, tweaked his feet to ingrain into the earth ever so slightly, resulting in a sudden stop to his gyrations. Coincidentally, he was facing me as I tumbled head over heels over the earth, but he paid more attention to my weapon that he was holding now.

"(Unrivaled craftsmanship and convenience on a weapon that possesses options in martial use,)" Xeno pondered as he scanned his eyes over the weapon, from one end to another. "(Although, the metallic barbs on the five-pronged spear end seem a little…redundant.)"

And then, when he was done stating his mental opinion of my weapon, he cast it aside by throwing it as though it were a javelin, causing it to land a safe distance away from my spectator brothers, whom retrieved the weapon and held onto it, understanding by Xeno's choice of actions that it was no longer needed.

_'Cause every night I will save your life_

_And every night I will be with you_

The discombobulating vertigo—that was by no means _lessened_ by my ragdoll-like tumbling across the earth—proved too great for me to cope with and hope to correct. My Blue (Water) Aura left me as I took a significant beating with each skip over the earth, my physical concentration in keeping it alive utterly shattered with each bruising impact.

Eventually, after reluctantly sliding for about 150 feet, I stopped altogether, the right side of my body resting on the dirt, as though I were sleeping on it. And once I felt myself come to a complete halt, I stirred from my resting place and struggled considerably to get back up. It was by no means an easy feat for me, with the feeling of moderate bruising present over most of my body from the tumbling that Xeno inflicted upon me, and the mental disoriented within my mind that made me feel as though someone had stuffed me inside a clothes dryer and set it on "high".

Nevertheless, I proved time and time again my resilience to these physical beatings and got back upright with enough effort put into my hands and feet to help hoist me up, and then _extra_ effort in my feet to help me _stay_ upright.

Xeno just watched on at my incomparable, unbelievable ability to endure pain, to tolerate injury, to override physical hindrances, and continue to go on in battle. After all, it would be utter foolishness in his part to _not_ notice it and admire it.

"_Since the moment of my birth, I've never clashed an opponent or an entity with as much endurance, persistency, and _spirit_ as you._"

_'Cause every night I still lay awake_

_And I dream of an absolution_

I was scraping off dirt that clung onto my clothing, clothing that proved itself resilient to the constant wear of battle. And as I did, I could feel the filth roll off the clothing—save for the dirt that clung onto my exposed right arm—, as well as my vertigo and the tenderness of my bruises. However, much like the lingering stains of blood and dirt on my clothing, signs of its presence still lingered, and wouldn't disappear unless I took time off to rest, and wash the filth off of my clothing as well.

"_The vast qualities that you possess...they are clearly beyond that of _any_ human._"

But for that to happen, this match must come to an end.

"_Eduardo…You are not human. You transcend it, in the same sense that I transcend my own native species._"

And for it to end…

"_We are both born with great power, and with great purpose to use it with._"

…It must be with one final attack.

_'Cause every night I will make it right_

_And every night I will come to you_

"Well then, why don't we prove that," I said, with as much power in my words as Xeno displayed with his praise for me. "You and me, right here and right now, one last attack, to conclude this match and decide a victor."

All Xeno could do in response to me was smile at my vigor, and nod in agreement.

And with words now behind us, all that remained was our actions.

_But every night it just stays the same_

_In my dream of an absolution_

In our part, both of our aura fields surged and spread outward from our bodies, flaring as strongly as our fatigued and battle-worn bodies could muster, energy plentiful enough to cause a low rumble below the earth, one strong enough to reach both Costas and Ian—whom thankfully possessed _enough_ of a survival instinct to step back to a much safer distance away from us.

_And you'll see_

With our energy rushing and our invigorating battle cries resonating with the earth, our power was molded into the form of our designated final attack against each other, one that would decide a victor between two wounded, albeit spirited combatants.

For Xeno, he channeled every ounce of his remaining stockpile of aura into two spheres of energy, an AURA SPHERE on his left paw, and an ELECTRO BALL on his right paw. The result of using these two attacks simultaneously caused the aura field surrounding him to disappear, its energy completely assimilated into both orbs of power.

_What you'll be_

For me, I employed a useful ability that I seldom utilized: my capability of emanating _two_ Elemental Aura attributes in unison. With tremendous focus with the fraction of power that I had remaining, my entire left arm emanated Black (Darkness) Aura, while my right arm emanated White (Light) Aura in conjunction. And within each respective hand, a sphere of energy began to form, its source originating of my respective Elemental Aura's quintessence. Within seconds, my _Chaos Aura Sphere_ technique formed in my left hand, and my _Luster Sphere Bomb_ technique formed in my right hand.

_And you'll see (Yeah)_

Xeno Lucario, now wielding both AURA SPHERE and ELECTRO BALL in unison, took it a step farther, beyond his normal boundaries with his techniques. He elevated both of his arms into the air, bringing his swirling AURA SPHERE and sparking ELECTRO BALL together above his head. The result of this was the unexpected, yet perfect _polymerization_ of both of these techniques. What Xeno now held within his paws was a swirling, spherical typhoon of revolving aura _and_ electricity, with a brilliantly illuminating plasma core where the hybridization of energy was at its most concentrated.

_All you can be (Oh)_

Ever the versatile, I felt it appropriate to emulate Xeno's actions and prove that I was just as capable of wielding power at this level as he was. So now, in the same fashion as him, I clasped my hands—my techniques—together, only I chose to have my arms face forward rather than above my head. The result of this was both techniques polymerizing together in opposite polarity synchronization, the attributes of light and darkness revolving together like the Chinese taijitu, amplifying each other's power in ways that was impossible on their own, all between my palms of my hands, aimed forward towards Xeno.

_'Cause every night_

The two of us, wishing to put our absolute all into our respective fusions of techniques, caused our bodies to emanate even more energy, our aura fields flaring once again out of our bodies, rattling the earth and disrupting the air around us all the more.

And as we were both doing so, our bodies, at their core, suddenly grew _lighter_ in shading, and we could feel a sharp, crippling, _traceable_ wave of negativity rise from the base of our feet and reach the apex of our heads—or ears, in Xeno's case—, repeating itself a few times in the process, never ceasing and causing our concentration on amplifying our techniques to wane.

_And every night_

Without ever having experienced this bizarre physical phenomenon before, we both instinctively came to the conclusion that this was a core physical response of our bodies telling us that we were _both_ at our absolute limit of our use of aura, and could no longer brandish any more of it without _severe_ repercussions. Thankfully, we both felt confident enough in our displays of power to cease our concentration altogether, which in turn caused these waves of negativity to stop, and our bodies to return to their normal corporeal shade.

And when we did, the full extent of the power inserted into our final techniques was made apparent.

_And every night_

Xeno's AURA SPHERE and ELECTRO BALL hybridization grew to the size of a Wailmer, and appeared just as round above his head. It possessed so much spiraling electrical force within it that, at one point, a few bolts of 100,000 volt electricity shot directly out of the sphere, and connected onto the dirt by Xeno's feet. These bolts of lightning mercilessly scorched the patches of dirt and grass that they were making contact with, and even traced blatantly obvious burn marks across a brief path around Xeno, before disappearing from existence a few seconds later.

My conjunction of my _Chaos Aura Sphere_ and _Luster Sphere Bomb_ techniques continued to revolve around its center point at a blindingly fast speed, as did my aura field, its present monochrome hue appropriate with my wardrobe choice and, in an unrelated way to this clash of powers, actually highlighted it.

_I will dream_

With the powers of our final techniques at as close to their peak as we're physically capable of giving them, Xeno was the first to act in striking me.

_[Ending Instrumental]_

"_ELECTRO AURA SPHERE!_"

Having no problems coping with wielding such a massive orb of energy, he charged towards me, holding his ELECTRO AURA SPHERE firmly and _only_ on his left paw, keeping it tucked to his side, to the best of his ability. The technique continued to spiral vast quantities of aura and electricity, humming ominously as it cut through the wind alongside Xeno's gait.

My technique, despite my improvisation in using it, was by no means intended in my part to be brandished for striking at an opponent at close range. Instead, as I had envisaged and manufactured this technique, it was meant to be _fired_.

"(_Twilight __Cannon_!)"

And when I coiled my hands and palms back before thrusting them forward, my technique—in every sense of the word—_fired_, in the form of a continuous, spiraling beam of black and white energy, one that effortlessly broke the speed of sound and smacked the air with a sonic boom, one that dug my feet partially into the earth and gave me the appearance of succumbing to the winds of a hurricane.

Xeno only reacted quickly enough to my motion to reposition his technique, placing it directly in front of him, effectively as a _shield_. And in the split second that my _Twilight __Cannon_ technique reached him, it collided into Xeno's ELECTRO AURA SPHERE.

The result of this was astonishing before the distant eyes of both Costas and Ian. From their perspective, rather than one technique overcoming the other, they _both_ held firm in their motions, never showing signs of ceasing. My _Twilight __Cannon_ technique bombarded Xeno's ELECTRO AURA SPHERE with enough force to have my technique glance off of his, sending beams of its monochrome energy flying behind Xeno, stalwartly vibrating the earth as it was exploding upon impact with it.

Xeno's technique held firm as a shield, but the strain that he was sustaining from utilizing it as so caused his forward momentum to greatly slow down, each step forward now fighting against my power and his own determination, as though he were cutting through it with a dulling blade.

It was now or never in Xeno's part. His face gnarled and his canine teeth were exposed as they clenched tighter than ever before. The Aura Pokémon dug deep within himself to find whatever shreds of stamina remained for this fight and charged forward with a burst of EXTREMESPEED, enough to make his progress resume to the level it once was before I fired my technique at him.

For Costas and Ian, what they were seeing was Xeno closing the distance between me, neither of us relenting for a moment. They saw Xeno move closer, and closer, and _closer_ to me, slowly and steadily, until his ELECTRO AURA SPHERE was at the base of my _Twilight __Cannon_ technique.

And at the exact moment that of this occurring, instead of an explosion engulfing the two of us, a dome of black darkness, radiant aura, surging electricity, and white light took its place.

_(Song Fades to an End)_

* * *

_28.4: Lifelong Brothers_

Time: 4:31 PM

When the hemispheric amalgam of energy subsided, all that remained in its place was a crater, over two hundred feet in diameter, one that was difficult to view the center of from the present position of both Costas and Ian.

Knowing that they couldn't fully analyze the situation from their present places, both brothers proceeded cautiously towards the crater, confident that our battle was at an end, but still containing the idea that they should step back if both Xeno and I are still able to fight after such a devastating clash of attacks.

However, upon reaching the outer ring of the crater, their confidence in our battle having reached an end was now a guarantee, once they accurately inspected our present condition.

The two of us, having unleashed everything we had within ourselves against each other in a phenomenal display of aura, were now completely face-down in the dirt, each of us about twenty five feet away from the very center of the crater, our heads angled lower to the earth than our feet due to the rotundity of this dirt crater.

The two of us possessed considerable damage across our entire bodies, ranging from first-degree burns to lacerations to bruises, but surprisingly absent of broken bones or serious internal trauma. Our external appearance possessed a considerable shade of brown—acquired from the dirt—alongside a few patches of red—from the coagulated hemorrhaging of earlier.

If it wasn't for the fact that our brothers could clearly hear us _hyperventilating_ from severe fatigue, then they would believe that we had passed out after our last attacks.

Instead, they showed utter astonishment at the fact that we, despite our immense fatigue and injuries, _still_ got up on our feet.

_The Braveheart's Triumphant Return/Dragon Ball Kai: Original Soundtrack 2/Kenji Yamamoto_

_(Song Begins)_

Both Xeno and I struggled to get back upright, constantly having our balance slip below our feet and having to correct it with a quick step in that direction. Sometimes, it wasn't corrected quickly enough, and we fell back down onto the earth, feeling our respective bodies buzz and rattle nastily from our acquired and amassed collection of injuries. Nevertheless, despite the damage and wear that we inflicted upon each other with our titanic skirmish, we persisted and remained upright, wobbly yet still standing, vision blurry but focused through blinking and squinting, ears ringing but throats swallowed to clear.

The two of us, taking it slow and wincing in the effort, proceeded over to each other, one hesitantly retarded step at a time. Each step forward felt to the two of us, not as an unconscious act that we can each perform while mentally digressing into another topic, but as a great mental effort, in overcoming our shared pain, and our fragmented senses of balance.

And yet, despite the disbelieving ogling of my brothers nearby, both Xeno and I persisted forward, until we both reached the center of our artificial crater simultaneously.

The two of us, the Aura Pokémon of Prophecy and the Elemental Aura Man of Bulwark, feebly stood within bruised arm's reach of each other, glaring into each other somberly with a battle-hardened glare, expressionless and calculating, face to face, planning how to defeat this adversary. Neither of us so much as blinked with our eyes, Xeno's sanguine glare and my ash-black fixed stare. We simply looked on at each other, for just about ten seconds.

And then, when our loss of balance caused us both to tilt forward, we both caught each other in our arms and embraced each other with a well-deserved hug—Xeno's chest-spike positioned _just_ enough to the side where impalement was no longer a possibility. The humorless countenance we expressed earlier had shed away, revealing now two smiling faces of deep, sincere admiration to each other. The pain that resulted from our actions, despite being uncomfortably noticeable, didn't bother us in the least at this moment.

All that mattered to us right now were the questions relating to our abilities.

"Jesus Christ, Xeno! Where did you learn how to fight like that?"

"_Where did _you _learn? No human from my knowledge comes _close_ to matching you in your attributes._"

"Would you believe that most of it, _before_ my proficiency in Elemental Aura, originated from my sparring matches with Costas and Ian during our childhood?"

At this point, we pulled away from our embrace, when we felt our balance begin to piece itself together again. And it was also at this point that both of my brothers began to tread down this monumental crater.

"_Actually, I can, because I can closely relate to that,_" Xeno stated. "_At the start of my life, I trained under two close Pokémon friends of mine as well._"

"How uncannily coincidental," I said, giving just one brief bit of mirth at this topic of similarity.

Xeno chuckled at this as well, and then changed the topic.

"_I have a question about your fighting style._"

"What is it?"

"_In your mind, why do you name most of your Elemental Aura techniques just as you initiate them?_"

The surprise that Xeno could read minds had already quelled into my knowledge on the Aura Pokémon's mental abilities, and I simply answered his question with honesty.

"It's a mental habit that I've developed to give each move I perform a sense of both identity and personal inventory, something that reflects my progress with my innate abilities." I stated. "And I choose to keep it _within_ my mind rather than blurt it out redundantly because if I did so, it could give my opponent an edge in combat on what to expect from me."

"_Not unless you face an opponent that can psychically read mind._"

"Well that's true," I admitted.

_(Song Ends)_

When Costas and Ian reached the center of the crater where Xeno and I resided, the two of us took note of their presence and faced them, both of us noting their respect for us through their expressions.

"Uh…" Costas began speaking for himself. "I'm…honestly at a loss of words at what to say about that display of power that the two of you demonstrated in your sparring match. What can I call it? Herculean? Godly? Otherworldly?"

"How about this, brother," Ian took over before looking at each of us square in the eye. "Eduardo, Xeno Lucario, it's quite clear to the two of us that you're both apex aura wielders. Both Costas and I would be honored, _blessed_ even, to train under the two of you, to learn first-hand how to perform such an arcane art."

Xeno spoke for himself and for me, knowing well enough from his acute senses just what I was feeling. "_It would be our pleasure to teach you the ways of the aura._"

"We _must_ anyway," I added, using a tone that implied mild urgency rather than reluctance. "If we want to so much as _hope_ to stand a chance against whatever lies in wait for us in the future, then we all must grow stronger _together_."

"_However, when we start our training, it would be best if I were to train you all in the basics first._" Xeno suggested. "_Reading minds, learning basic control of aura, being able to _see_ the aura present in all forms of existing matter, telepathy… it's how I was trained before I broadened my range comfortably with higher-level techniques._"

Both Costas and Ian nodded in agreement.

As did I, even though Xeno could only see this from the corner of his vision. Because, even though I was already displaying proficiency in wielding aura, there was always room to learn these helpful skills that Xeno possessed that I do not.

"_And then when we I've brought the three of you to my level in learning the basics,_" Xeno turned his head to face me, looking up ever so slightly so that he could see me square in the eye, a small smile forming below his elongated snout. "_Eduardo can take over and teach us three how to brandish Elemental Aura._"

"I'd be more than happy to," I nodded at Xeno in agreement, before becoming somber with the need to address an important fact about my power. "The only problem though is that, unlike Xeno, I have nothing to trace back Elemental Aura with aside from _myself_. As far as I know, I'm the _only_ person who knows how to wield such power, and there's always the chance that it'll remain that way if I realize that passing on the use of these skills is impossible."

Both Costas and Ian remained silent in their digestion of this information of mine. Xeno as well, understanding that what I had to say was, in a sense, highly plausible.

After all, from his understanding of the power of aura in the hands of humanity, through those select few human individuals that reside within the opposite Earth that he calls home—that call themselves "Aura Guardians"—, I stand much taller amongst them, displaying power that they can't even dream of. And even to his respective species of Pokémon, to the Riolu and Lucario branch, I displayed power that they pale in comparison to. They only wield aura in its natural form, while I've unknowingly acquired the ability to use it to manipulate a specific attribute, one that the color of my aura corresponds to.

Even though Xeno, alongside every other Pokémon in existence, are already capable of brandishing various attributes and abilities at will, I can do so as well, through my aura. Because of that, in Xeno's mind, I was just as powerful as a Pokémon.

"(With power like that, you can hold your own, and even _win_ against virtually any Pokémon you decide to clash against.)" Xeno pondered within his mental privacy.

"Well," Costas responded with ignorance and bliss. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it."

"So for now," Ian concluded. "Let's just learn as much as we can from _Xeno's_ teachings."

There were no interjections in our part against this first step in our group initiative, and we all agreed outright.

As for _questions_ however…

"When the two of you begin to teach us what you know," Costas inquired, "how exactly should we address you? Should we refer the two of you as 'Mr.' or 'Ms.'?"

I roll my eyes and groan over the resurfacing of this topic, my behavior alone suggesting that I would not answer this question. Xeno however, saw this from a broader scale, as an opportunity for a new start for himself amongst a new group of close friends.

With his Pokémon friends that remained within the parallel Earth that he once resided upon, they would refer to him, as they would also refer to each other, as "it" rather than "he" or "she". Humanity would do so as well, because the concept of gender amongst Xeno's native race was a complicated matter. Without the obvious physical anatomy to follow by—as was _not_ the case with mankind—, to identify the "mental gender" of a Pokémon, trickier methods are involved to pinpoint their state of mind. These methods include the successful use of ATTRACT, distinct physical indentations amongst similar Pokémon species, behavior, lifestyle choices, and breeding—despite the eternal mystery of where eggs _actually_ come from.

"_Just refer to us in the same way you refer yourselves, as well as Eduardo when the three of you first met,_" Xeno suggested, "_as a 'he', despite the lack of physical genitalia to support that._"

Ian, choosing to remain a silent listener during this tender conversation, understood this information, and respected Xeno's words.

Costas, however, continued to prod the topic for all that its worth. And Ian, making sure that Costas was unable to see this, had his hand ready to bring firmly down on Costas's skull.

"Why, when Ian and I could just as easily refer to the both of you as either an 'it' or a 'she'?"

Both Xeno and I answered Costas's plaguing questions, myself answering them abrasively and immediately, so as to finally conclude the subject.

"Lifestyle choices."

"_Tone of voice._"

"Stereotypes."

"_Behavior._"

Costas, detecting my growing infuriation over such a sensitive subject, felt satisfied with having enough of his questions answered and simply said "Alright" with a single nod.

Discreetly, Ian pulled his hand back and set it aside, much to his relief as well, because he was about a second away from clobbering Costas in the back of the head again.

"Now let me dive into another topic," Costas digressed. "It's about that 'hooded figure' character."

I spoke in Xeno's place this time.

"Go on."

"What should we refer the hooded figure by? Because, I'll be honest, the 'hooded figure' is beginning to sound old and stale to me."

I showed a bit of astonishment at Costas's question.

"Are you suggesting that we give a _name_ to the _nameless_ hooded figure?"

"Yes."

I just stared on at him with an inability to understand his logic.

"…Have you sustained another head injury again?"

"No."

"He _almost_ did," Ian added, "if he didn't change the subject at the last second."

Costas just confirmed that statement, but kept his focus on me.

"Have you forgotten just what a _grave_ threat that entity is?" I continued speaking grimly. "We're talking about the same person that narrowly _killed_ Xeno."

For Xeno, upon hearing the sincerity of my words, the thought of never having come closer to death than at that particular moment—which was actually just _yesterday_—reverberated across his spine in the form of a cadaverous chill.

Costas simply remained firm, "All the more reason to give him a name, something to cement our drive and our spite to."

In the end, I stopped bothering arguing with his logic and complied.

"…Fine then. So…what kind of name did you have in mind?"

"His name has to be memorable," Costas began to explain. "It has to perfectly fit his character and uncanny facial similarity to you."

Almost immediately, Xeno thought of a possible name, not giving any of us so much as a second to contemplate on the subject.

"_Odraude?_"

It didn't take a person with 1% of my total I.Q. to understand that Xeno took my name and inverted its spelling.

"Yeah, that works," Costas agreed before facing Ian. "What about you, Ian?"

"To be honest, any other name _wouldn't_ work well on him." Ian said.

"Oh God…" I rolled my eyes at this imbecility.

"So it's settled then," Costas faced me once again. "With a three-to-one vote count, the hooded figure will henceforth be known as…Odraude."

"(*Sigh*)" I couldn't argue against a democratic vote once it had been finalized. "I guess I'll get used to that name in time."

"That's good to hear," Costas said smugly.

And then, with the topic dropped, Ian brought up a new one.

"So what should we do now?"

"_I know what we _shouldn't _do right now,_" Xeno said, "_and it's mostly because Eduardo and I are too overall _drained_ after our battle._"

"True," I responded. "If anything, we should just relax for today, until we're back to full health. And then, tomorrow, Xeno will begin to teach us the basics of aura."

With those final words, the setting where the great battle between Xeno Lucario and I took place was nothing more than a speck in the background when the four of us flew back to my home village with the aid of my S3-OSS devices.

* * *

"I will honor you forever, but I will never kill you." —Orson Scott Card ("_Speaker for the Dead_") (342)

* * *

For those that believe that I make this look easy, It's really not. Both "Chapter XIX (19)" and "Chapter XX (20)" took me, when I was writing them, a total of four months to complete. Of course, during that time, I did spend about a week or two of that time off of writing FanFiction, because I either had to work more than usual or complete an important college assignment.

Nevertheless, persistence pays off, especially with some of the distractions that I had earlier this July month while I was proofreading this chapter.

eBay and YouTube.

For eBay, I spend a considerable amount of time taking pictures of and listing over 200 Pokémon (and some Yu-Gi-Oh!) card items to sell. I'm still not done with that yet, but I will be soon.

For YouTube, it was almost exclusively videos of Minecraft and My Little Pony. For Minecraft, it was mostly from SkyDoesMinecraft's playlists. For My Little Pony, it was those "The Top Ten Pony Videos of [Insert Month and Year here]", and then I branched off from there. When I did branch off, it was to watch 2Snacks's "Two Best Sisters Play" videos, "Double Rainboom", Fluffy Mixer's videos, and AnimatedJames's "[Insert "Sonic" character name here] VS [Insert "MLP:FiM" character name here]" videos.

I even went and acquired the documentary video "Bronies: The Extremely Unexpected Adult Fandom of My Little Pony".

All in all, I wish I had dived into the Brony fandom a bit sooner. If anything though, It certainly passes the time needed to wait for Season 4 of MLP:FiM.

And speaking of waiting, you as my loyal readers won't necessarily have to wait too long for the next few chapters that I have waiting to upload. For the next few chapters, they're a bit shorter and more plot-driven to "The Path of the Aura II: Brothers in Arms", compared to "Chapter XIX (19)" and "Chapter XX (20)" anyway, which was all a fitting display of how well I can prove myself in writing FanFiction.

For the next chapter, I focus on one of Xeno Lucario's twelve party of Pokémon, on their quest to gather Arceus's sixteen elemental plates.

Stay tuned, and enjoy your summer!

(...Aside from the unpleasantly hot weather...)


	4. Chapter XXI (21)

Hit Count for "The Path of the Aura: Intertwining Crossroads": 5,583

Hit Count for "The Path of the Aura II: Brothers in Arms": 86

Total Hit Count: 5,669

At this point in my progress so far with "The Path of the Aura II: Brothers in Arms", I'm still not surprised that "The Path of the Aura: Intertwining Crossroads" is still receiving considerably more attention than its direct sequel. The reason for that is obvious, and I won't bore my readers by repeating my acumen on the reason why again. I just know that as my sequel continues to grow, so will the attention directed to it.

And I'll be here to help it grow, as a labor of love, as my fellow readers flock themselves my way and see what I have to offer them. Because, and I can safely say this with 100% certainty, that I'll be here for years to come.

Why? Because I can.

Anyway, what I have for my fellow readers today is the first chapter that begins the second side to "The Path of the Aura II: Brothers in Arms", the side involving Xeno Lucario's twelve Pokémon comrades, shortly after where I left off with them via "The Path of the Aura: Intertwining Crossroads".

And while the chapter is short (by MY standards anyway), and passive compared to both "Chapter XIX (19)" and "Chapter XX (20)", it's only the beginning of this side, and I cycle between both of these Earths, one chapter at a time.

* * *

**Chapter XXI (21): The Plate of Dragons**

Location: ?

Date: ?

Time: ?

"_And so, it begins. My dearly beloved creations have passed down my assignment to Xeno's comrades, and all twelve of them have accepted it without a moment's hindrance. It's in their hands, paws, claws, and flippers now, to accomplish My test._"

"Do You believe that they'll succeed? Do you think that they'll all come back, with all sixteen of your plates?"

"_I have no idea. They might, or they might not. It all depends on how willing they are to succeed, how they overcome whatever challenges choose to reveal themselves before them._"

"...Wait, what? Really?! But I thought You were all-knowing."

"_Who told you that nonsense?_"

"Nobody told me! I just assumed that…You know…with Your great power, You were all-knowing."

"_…_"

"You mean…You're _not_ all-knowing."

"_I am, without question, the most powerful Pokémon in existence. I have the power to wield every single Pokémon attribute at will, beckon Pokémon into existence, and at one point I even created an entire universe that we all inhabit. And yet, despite My phenomenal abilities, My intelligence, albeit immense, _isn't_ what you or I would call 'all-knowing'._"

"What makes you so sure of that?"

"_Do you know one of those phrases that both humanity and Pokémon say out of frustration, or spite, or astonishment?_"

"…'Oh my Arceus'?"

"_Yes, precisely. Now, have you ever wondered what I, what Arceus _Itself _would say out of frustration, spite, or astonishment?_"

"…You mean You haven't simply said 'Oh my Me' or something similar to that?"

"_…_"

"…"

"_…_"

"…Seriously? You _haven't?_"

"_…You little fu—_"

* * *

_29.1: A Task Bestowed by the Original One_

Location: Mt. Coronet (Spear Pillar)

Date: April 2nd, 2019

Time: 12:30 PM (Thirty Past Noon)

_The Promised Beginning/Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep & 358/2 Days OST/Yoko Shimomura_

_(Song Begins)_

After the events that have undergone between Xeno's party of twelve Pokémon and the Deities of the Sinnoh Region—Dialga, Giratina, and Palkia—, those three Pokémon departed from Spear Pillar and returned back to their respective dimensions. Their information on the prophecy where Xeno is centered around has already been passed on to the twelve Pokémon that share a close bond with the Aura Pokémon of Prophecy, alongside information on the assignment that Arceus wishes them to accomplish, to prove that they have received Xeno's blessings—their natural limits shattered for transcending—and become worthy of joining alongside him for the looming crisis at hand.

The Void of the Dark One.

To prove themselves worthy of following in Xeno's Path of the Aura, Arceus desires the twelve of them to locate the sixteen elemental plates that are scattered far and wide across the Sinnoh Region, their locations accurately identified through sixteen of the pillars that exist within Spear Pillar, inscribed with the Language of the Unown.

"Wanderer" Lucario, placed second-in-command after Xeno Lucario was transported to the parallel Earth where the Void of the Dark One would originate, was the only Pokémon in the group that learned of this ancient language and could decipher it. The other eleven Pokémon, its comrades that it was now placed responsible of, all waited for Wanderer's guidance, its decoding of the Language of the Unown, to propel them to their destinations.

As Wanderer scanned over every single pillar within the vicinity, even the ones that were fractured—after having repaired them temporarily with PSYCHIC—, it eventually identified the sixteen in particular that gave the locations of Arceus's elemental plates, the sixteen type attributes—excluding both Fairy-Type and Normal-Type—inscribed in each one of them confirming this. And in reading their inscriptions, Wanderer noticed that they were all written down in vague riddles, in the format of a haiku, appearing as indefinable nonsense at first glance.

However, because of Wanderer's common sense and experience, it knew exactly the purpose of these pillars. Because of the earlier guidance of Dialga, Giratina, and Palkia, it now knew that these pillars all corresponded to explaining the locations of these elusive set of plates, through an ancient language that so few individuals know of to this day. And because of not only Wanderer's, but _everybody'_s experience of having travelled the world alongside Xeno Lucario during his days under the self-named movement "Team Liberator", the riddles that each and every one of these sixteen pillars had engraved on them were, with only a modicum of mental effort, dissected and rearranged into accurate instructions as to where they all should go across the Sinnoh Region.

And throughout this brief, yet demanding mental exercise, Wanderer chose to follow the advice that Dialga suggested to it earlier. Wanderer would have each and every Pokémon within this group of twelve—including itself—split up to locate one of the sixteen elemental plates of their designated mark. And once they all regrouped back to Spear Pillar after locating twelve of the sixteen elemental plates, Wanderer would then have them all split up again, into four groups of three, to locate the final four elemental plates.

"_We have no room for failure here, everybody._" Wanderer gave his final words in the form of a motivational team talk, knowing that it will take some time before they reunite again. "_We have been given an important task by the Original One Itself, to prove ourselves before Its all-seeing eyes and join Xeno Lucario on its destiny._"

The other eleven Pokémon present before Wanderer Lucario—Absol, Aggron, "Aqua" Lapras, Charizard, Combusken, Dusknoir, Luxray, Metang, Sceptile, "Terra" Garchomp, and Tyranitar—listened closely, their intended directions already committed to memory and on a hair trigger for them to initiate.

"_We might as well consider ourselves _damned_ if we choose to refuse,_" Wanderer continued. "_Because if we do, we'll not only cut ourselves off from our close friend and our admired leader, but we'll also cut off from it any physical support. And for all we know, Xeno will be plunged headlong into this impending calamity alone. So what kind of friends are we to it, after what it's selflessly done for the twelve of us, if we aren't there to support it?_"

Everybody looked on at Wanderer, digesting their new leader's words, knowing well enough already what was at stake from how Dialga, Giratina, and Palkia addressed it to them earlier, with their tones of apprehension over a threat that is confirmed to be _exponentially_ greater in strength than they themselves, one that Arceus Itself _acknowledges_ as hostile and catastrophic to existence.

And alongside this, they recalled the fond memories of how Xeno risked his life to ensure their safety, especially when they were slaves to Team Rocket—to Giovanni—, and Xeno liberated them from their control.

…Everybody except for Absol, Combusken, Metang, and Sceptile, whom drew their closeness to Xeno through other powerful experiences.

Absol's closeness to Xeno revolves around its former vendetta towards the Aura Pokémon, now warped into a successful second chance after realizing how poor its outlook would be when others see the bitter work it would've done if it stayed in its dark path, thanks to the efforts of Latias, whom is just as close a friend to Absol as Xeno is now.

Combusken's and Metang's closeness to Xeno revolves around their willing choices in joining him after discreetly seeing his strength when the Aura Pokémon clashed against Giovanni, the Boss of Team Rocket. They saw a chance to better themselves by his side. And even though Xeno initially denied training them because he knew that in joining him they'd be putting their own lives at risk by the enemies that he's made, he thought otherwise in the end, and took them in under his arms, under the name of Team Liberator at the time.

Lastly, Sceptile closeness to Xeno is, at its core, centered through its _literal_ lifelong friendship and training with him as he was growing up in Celadon Forest. Alongside Tiny Riolu—who is unfortunately no longer of this world—they founded Xeno Lucario shortly after he hatched from his respective egg, as a dark-furred Riolu without a nickname at the time. And as the years past and their friendship together was at one point challenged, primarily by the events that Team Rocket acted out on the Forest Pokémon—events that caused Sceptile to grow insane and drive out the Celadon Forest populace through its pain and loneliness—, Xeno eventually came back from his capture by Team Rocket and was there in time to comfort it, to assure Sceptile that not everything was lost, and that both he and Wanderer were still alive, though sadly Tiny Riolu was not because it altruistically gave its life to save it.

Wanderer began to conclude. "_Whatever challenges impedes our way, we well overcome at all costs, with all our power if we must, so that we can prove ourselves to Arceus that we are worthy in Its eyes, and stalwart enough to fight alongside Xeno against the Void of the Dark One._"

With those last words, they all bid each other farewell for now, before travelling away from Spear Pillar and towards their designated elemental plates.

Both Charizard and Terra Garchomp quickly took to the skies and were gone from view within minutes—or seconds for the Mach Pokémon when it broke the sound barrier with its surprising flight speed.

Dusknoir and Metang hovered down the uneven, rocky surface of Mt. Coronet, through their uncanny levitating abilities.

Aqua Lapras, after freezing a smooth and straight path for itself with ICE BEAM, literally _slid_ down the towering mountain, the hindering friction on its blubbery belly virtually nonexistent and its flippers allowing it to control its momentum well on the ice.

And for everybody else who had legs and no means of taking to the skies, they scaled down Mt. Coronet through agile leaps and elongated bounds, the rocky terrain proving no match at slowing down their progress or deterring them from their important mission.

It wasn't long before the nostalgic silence returned to Spear Pillar, leaving it undisturbed as it almost always appears to be.

_(Song Ends)_

* * *

_29.2: "History Living"_

MEETING TIME AND SPACE

DIALGA AND PALKIA

HISTORY LIVING

Through Wanderer's deciphering of all sixteen of the important pillars in Spear Pillar, the approximated location of one of the plates that the pillar specified—the Draco Plate—was made known.

Eterna City, a small conurbation titled as "History Living" by its defining, displayed landmark.

Absol, being the Pokémon that the arctic-furred Aura Pokémon designated to locate the Draco Plate, made quick work in descending down Spear Pillar, and then the frigid, merciless terrain of Mt. Coronet. In the process, Absol headed northwestward all throughout its descent of the towering mountain, Eterna City now within its sights, and gradually coming closer and closer within its reach as it progressed.

* * *

Location: Eterna City

Time: Midnight

Upon arrival to the city where history lives, Absol immediately noticed the scenery and locales within it.

At the northernmost part of Eterna City, the Galactic Eterna Building resided there, once utilized by Team Galactic for their nefarious schemes. However, after they had abandoned that building years ago, it has been reworked as an apartment complex, a much better choice of what to do with it rather than simply demolish it.

At the easternmost part of Eterna City, the herb shop resides there. Within this small building is a daily business that is dedicated in selling beneficial, yet inexpensive medicine for Pokémon, in the form of herbs that work more potently than most commonplace types of medicine. The only downside to this medicine is that the _taste_ of them is considerably bitter, and very unpleasant to the Pokémon, to the point where they'll dislike their Pokémon Trainer if given these herbs on a regular basis. Many Pokémon Trainers consider this as a fair trade off, and know well enough from their experiences just when to and when _not_ to utilize this type of medicine.

At around the center of Eterna City, Rad Rickshaw's Cycle Shop can be seen there, a shop dedicated to selling bicycles, a must-have mode of transportation for any traveling Pokémon Trainer. And at the southernmost part of the city, the Eterna Gym resided, a Pokémon Gym that specializes in Grass-Type Pokémon, under the Gym Leader Gardenia.

All of these locales, to Absol's _single_ right eye, meant nothing during this sable time of day, where virtually everybody was dedicating this time to catch some sleep. Instead, what immediately caught Absol's attention was the most distinct landmark of this city.

The Ancient Statue, which resided on a small hill on the easternmost location of Eterna City.

Not sensing any active life within the vicinity aside of its own, Absol lackadaisically proceeded through the small roads of Eterna City, and then up the hill where the monument was placed, until it was face-to-face with the Ancient Statue, in all of its professional craftsmanship and glory. And despite the dim lights of the distant lampposts back down at the base of the hill, Absol's remaining right eye was extremely acute in its night-vision capabilities, and the Disaster Pokémon was able to see as though it were noon in Eterna City rather than midnight.

Without question, the most distinct feature of the Ancient Statue that caught Absol's remaining right eye was the fact that this _single_ statue depicted _both_ Dialga and Palkia, on top of the same platform. However, rather than displaying them as _two_ _individual_ Pokémon placed adjacent to each other, the sculptor of this Ancient Statue displayed both Dialga and Palkia, masters of space and time, as _one individual_.

This anonymous sculptor, with his/her unusual choice in depicting Dialga and Palkia as "Dialkia", effectively and properly blended the physical elements of both Pokémon into this hybridization so that "Dialkia" appeared perfectly 50% Dialga and 50% Palkia.

"Dialkia" retains the bipedal physical stature of Palkia, alongside its striped underbelly and tail, while possessing Dialga's wing-like structure on its lower back, as well as its legs, which appeared thicker than usual to cope with standing on only two legs rather than four. Continuing upward, "Dialkia" possessed Dialga's enormous chest plate and midsection, while simultaneously possessing Palkia's shoulders, arms, and fin-like wings. And at its peak, "Dialkia" possessed Palkia's neck and face, with Dialga's elongated head and complicated horn/fang hybridization on its left and right jaw.

As for the color of the statue, rather than being a hybridization of the color schemes of both Dialga and Palkia, it was merely the color of stone, the material of which it was shaped from.

"(What compelled the sculptor of this bizarre statue to depict Dialga and Palkia as though they were one?)" Absol pondered to itself in curiosity. "(Was it because of a creative impulse in displaying entities of space and time as one Pokémon, to illustrate the correlation between the two forces? Or was it simply a shortage of materials and a rushed due date?)"

Believing that the answer would be out of its reach, Absol set it aside and looked at the base that the feet of the Ancient Statue stood upon. What it immediately saw was an inscribed plaque adorning the statue with its message. And upon noticing the plaque, Absol noticed two things about it: it was written in English, and it appeared _newer_ than the rest of the Ancient Statue, likely as a replacement for the anterior plaque that might've been worn with age and/or stolen.

Absol began to listen to the voice in its head as its mind was reading the messages being sent to it by its single right eye.

"The creation of DIALGA,

The giver of time...

In laughter, there is tears...

And, likewise it is with time.

The same time flows on.

For it is the blessing of DIALGA."

...

"The birth of PALKIA.

The creator of parallel dimensions...

Alive, yet not alive...

Everything drifts in space...

To arrive in the same universe.

It is the blessing of PALKIA."

Before questioning the possibility of the sculptor of this statue being a poet, Absol realized that it was growing sidetracked from its mission at hand paw and decided that it shouldn't dawdle in locating the Draco Plate.

* * *

_29.3: Little Company_

Not too far off from Absol's present location, within a loaded dumpster resting outside the Eterna Condominiums and in the nighttime darkness, a Pokémon was present.

The Pokémon itself is tiny, no larger than a Poké Ball, and is fuzzy and yellow in color. It has the body shape of a tick, with four stubby legs, each leg possessing a single blue-colored pointed foot for it to stand on. It has two blue eyes, large and incorporating most of its face, alongside two smaller occeli that are nestled alongside its forehead.

The Pokémon itself is a Joltik, and it was digging into the dumpster for sustenance.

_**(Joltik, the Attaching Pokémon. It is a Bug-Type and an Electric-Type Pokémon that measures a miniscule 0'04'' and weighs in at a featherweight 1.3 lbs. Since it can't generate its own electricity, it sticks onto large-bodied Pokémon and absorbs static electricity. The upside to this is that, if you have one of these little volt-suckers on you, you no longer have to worry about an unpleasant static discharge upon touching something.)**_

For any other urban Pokémon that decided to forage within a dumpster, there was clearly no shortage of discarded human food for them to feast on. What they would likely find in any city dumpster are stale pieces of bread, slightly-rotting fruits and vegetables, and discarded leftovers from breakfast, lunch, and/or dinner, oftentimes wrapped inside knotted, plastic bags that took nothing more than a swipe of the claw or the tearing with the teeth to open.

For Joltik however, there _was_ a shortage of food for it, because the Joltik species in general have a limited diet. To them, electricity is the only victual that they can feast happily on, and nothing else. Nevertheless, this Joltik in particular did at least bother to try to eat something else as it searched for anything electric-based to leech on, though with disgusted failure.

At one point as it buried itself within the garbage, it stumbled upon a pizza box with a few leftover pizza crusts inside of it. Joltik took one bite of it and immediately spat it out with a revolted look on its tiny face. And at another point, it found itself inside a container half-full of popcorn, and was holding a popcorn kernel with all four of its stubby feet, its back lying on the butter-coated kernels. But all it took was one small lick for it to cringe its tiny face and scurry out of the container.

Feeling that its search for electricity was a failure, Joltik proceeded to the edges on the top of the dumpster, where a simple leap would let it land down on terra firma. However, before it decided to jump and look elsewhere, something caught its eye that was circling the Ancient Statue about a few hundred feet away from it.

Without questioning its baser instincts, Joltik leapt off of the dumpster and fell a distance that would equal a human being jumping from the fifth floor of a building. The fall itself was _more_ than bearable for a Pokémon of its paltry size and weight, and it landed as though it were a descending feather. And without anything else on its mind, it ventured off towards the point of interest, scurrying across hundreds of feet of gravel road and grassy hillside that would equal the distance of a few miles for a human being, knowing that crossing this much ground would be worth it.

* * *

"(If I was an elemental plate,)" Absol circled the Ancient Statue repeatedly, pondering deeply to itself. "(Where would I place myself within this city?)"

As Absol continued pacing around the statue, it took a few moments to look up at the statue, to see it from all angles. Though, in doing so, it wasn't taking its impressive detail into account, but rather its placement here, on the top of a hill in Eterna City that served no other purpose but to be green with grass.

And then, Absol stopped abruptly, when it had an idea.

"(That Draco Plate…)" Absol decided to look down on the statue, directly on its base, where stone met dirt. "(Could this Ancient Statue be concealing it?)"

With no other apparent lead to go on, Absol decided to DIG at the dirt directly below the statue, to see if its assumption would yield results.

It began to DIG away at the rear base of the Ancient Statue, its sharp claws digging into the grass and the dirt below the monument, as though they were a hot knife to butter. The physical demand needed to DIG was effortless in its part, especially since Absol had dug through much harder substances before in its past. The dirt shuffled by its progress was cast aside behind it, with each sequential movement of its paws scraping away at the dirt.

And as Absol began to form a hole under the Ancient Statue, large enough for it to bury the upper half of its body into, it felt something hit it square on its rear end. This caused Absol to stop digging for a moment and survey its surrounding alertly, wondering what caused that.

"(…Must've been just a clump of dirt that bounced up,)" Absol believed before continuing to DIG.

Not long after Absol resumed digging, it felt its claws scrape against something solid, something buried _directly below_ the base of the statue. And upon feeling this, Absol wasted no time in crouching down into the hole and wedging its entire body, up to its pelvic bone, into the crevice it made with its persistence.

Within a minute of remaining in this unusual position, Absol's claws made quick work in scraping away all of the anchoring soil that kept the concealed treasure in its place, never needing its eyes for this because its sense of touch was more than necessary. And with its sense of touch, it could feel that the object it had located felt completely smooth, exotic, and even _uplifting_.

"(I have you now)" echoed within Absol's mind with glee when it felt the mystery object firmly nestle itself between its paws.

And as Absol shimmied its hind legs and hips to help the upper half of its body escape the small Pokémon-made fissure below the Ancient Statue, the city's lamp lights—despite their dimness—began to enter the earth that Absol was partially buried in. And as Absol's night-vision eyes adjusted to the precious little light that sufficed for it, the object that Absol carried on its paws glistened before its face, what _exactly _it was being made clear before the Disaster Pokémon.

Within its front paws was a stone tablet in the shape of a rectangle, possessing a faded shade of cerise in color, and emanating a powerful aura that would invigorate the barbaric nature of Dragon-Type Pokémon.

"(This is it,)" Absol pondered indubitably. "(This is the Draco Plate.)"

Upon examining the surface of the Draco Plate, Absol noticed that there was a very tenuous inscription on the surface of the stone tablet, one that was only visible if the light was angled on it in such a way where it seeped into the engravings and formed very subtle shadows. Unfortunately for the Disaster Pokémon, the inscription is written in the Language of the Unown, and would be better in its part to have Wanderer Lucario decipher it.

With the Draco plate now in Absol's possession, all it had to do to carry it back to Mt. Coronet's Spear Pillar was to use one of its paws to pull down the black bandana that was tied over and concealing Absol's mouth. In doing so, the _lipless_ mouth that Absol retained, from an former blood feud with Xeno Lucario, was visible in plain view. Absol's sharp teeth and pink gums were visible in the dim, distant lamplight. The saliva coating the two of them caused its mouth to glisten ever so slightly.

And then, after replacing the dirt that it dug into back as it originally was—to the best of its ability—, as silently as it arrived to Eterna City, Absol secured the Draco Plate with its jaw strength and dental grip, before leaving the city where history lives and making the long walk back home.

Little did it know that it was carrying an extra passenger with it, in the form of a happy Joltik, the same exact one that scurried towards Absol upon first noticing the Disaster Pokémon's presence nearby the Ancient Statue.

The Attaching Pokémon, much as its name applied, clung tightly onto Absol's rear end, enjoying the taste of the static electricity that was generated with each step Absol made, regardless of where it was coming from on Absol's fur. Because, as Joltik snickered lightly to itself, it knew that it had finally found a reliable food source, and would engorge itself on static electricity for a long time.

* * *

Draco Plate — Absol / Joltik

* * *

"To tend, unfailingly, unflinchingly, towards a goal, is the secret of success." —Anna Pavlona

* * *

I told you guys that this chapter was short...or at least one of my shorter chapters, which is still longer than what many authors are comfortable writing. Some authors work at their own pace, depending on what they write, what ideas they wish to have take form, and how much free time they have.

In my case, I balance both college and a part-time job (alongside my other hobbies of card collecting and video games) and yet I aim for at least an average of 1,000 words daily whenever I'm working on a new chapter. My reasons for that is because I've had the structure of this sequel story held in my mind for some time, consistently reviewing my ideas and how best to implement them when I inevitably get there. And because of the scale that I can genuinely see my "The Path of the Aura" series reach in...let's say a year or two from now, I want to try to write as much as possible, so that I can show you all what I have.

That's good to know, because I don't see myself slowing down anytime soon, especially with what I have upcoming.

And speaking of "upcoming", have any of you heard of the new "Mega Pokémon" mechanic of Pokémon X and Y? I know I have. And so far, I'm blown away at how _badass_ Nintendo/Game Freak has made MegaAbsol, MegaBlaziken, MegaLucario, and MegaMewtwo (alongside MegaAmpharos, MegaMawile, and just recently MegaKangaskhan).

I'm mentioning this here because my FanFic series features Absol, Blaziken (both Combusken and Metang will evolve because that much is certain), Lucario ("YOU DON'T SAY?"), and Mewtwo. And while I can see myself adopting this interesting new concept, it has to be done right. And by done right, I mean at a point in my ideas where it matters.

That's much better than growing unnecessarily frustrated at the fact that they gave Lucario a "Mega Evolution" and thinking that my FanFic is useless now, or some stupid nonsense like that.

...

I wonder what other "Mega Evolutions" do they have in store?

So much information, and only about two months until Pokémon X and Y make it to America.


	5. Chapter XXII (22)

Hit Count for "The Path of the Aura: Intertwining Crossroads": 5,832

Hit Count for "The Path of the Aura II: Brothers in Arms": 152

Total Hit Count: 5,984

It's been a great period of time for me between my last update with "Chapter XXI (21)" and this update of "Chapter XXII (22)". During that time, I've made great improvements with both my FanFic hobby and my personal life.

In terms of my personal life, I've successfully passed the third term of my college courses, and with flying colors compared to when I narrowly failed it the last time. Thankfully though, I've learned well from my mistakes and where I needed to improve. And now, because of that, I'm on my fourth of five terms, and (as long as I'm focused) expected to graduate on May 2014 and become a Registered Veterinary Technician.

And as for my FanFic hobby (the MAIN reason as to why you're all here), I've seen a _radical_ increase in notoriety for my first FanFic, "The Path of the Aura: Intertwining Crossroads", entirely thanks to PkmnMaster Rolf. He took both the time and the pleasure to read and review through every single chapter of my first story. And in the process, he demonstrated beneficial qualities that I honestly wish the vast majority of users on this website would employ. One can only improve through beneficial feedback to their stories, be it in the form of generous praise or constructive criticism. And in his case, he showed both, highlighting to me what I did right, and what I didn't do right or could change for the better.

I'll definitely keep that in mind when I feel it appropriate to go back on my work and tweak the little details that I've been asked about.

Of course, the thanks aren't entirely his own for me to give.

Aside from PkmnMaster Rolf, I can also give thanks to the anonymous reviewer by the name of "GuestRLH", for leaving this to my first story:

"Ok. First of all. Mind blown by the incredible detail not to mention plain out awesomeness of the story. Did I mention plot development?! And of all things it was rivaling an actual writen book! Who knew! So before I start Bowing down to the majesty of this book, thanks for writing it, and I hope you continue your work"

Whether you are reading on at my work or not, I can safely assure you and my fellow readers when I say this: I'm not going anywhere for a long time. I keep true to my promises and my goals. I don't quit and I will keep writing for as long as I am able to.

Besides, why on earth would I relinquish this hobby of mine? I exercise both my fandom and my mind with my writing, and as one gets older, there's a mental benefit to this.

And aside from those two praised users, I can also give thanks to OseanSoldier, my good friend and ally in FanFiction. Without him, I wouldn't have known about PkmnMaster Rolf and his respective story, titled "A Spirit's Journey".

Hell, I'm told by OseanSoldier that PkmnMaster Rolf left a praising remark about my story in his 20th chapter.

And even though I enjoy receiving thanks, I believe I'm better at _giving_ it than receiving it. I've definitely returned the favor to both OseanSoldier, his military-savvy "Dimensional War" FanFic, alongside PkmnMaster Rolf and his "A Spirit's Journey" FanFic.

You both know well enough the type of person I am, what I do and what we secretly wish other users would take the time to do as well. And all I have to say to that is thank you. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. I will continue my lifelong support of you and your respective works, and I only hope you both do the same for me, as we all continue to evolve in our writing. And as time goes on, I hope there are others that wish to join this circle.

Remember what I said in my "Afterword" chapter, how I would most definitely read and review a story recommended to me? I'm entirely up for that, as I'm still going back to most of the stories that I've read in the past but never had the chance to review because I didn't have a FanFic account back then.

...Did I miss anything?

Well, aside of the fact that I just past by my second year anniversary in writing FanFiction on this website, that's just about it.

So now that this intro's out of the way, get to reading. Come on. Come on. You know you want to.

...I'll shut up now.

* * *

**Chapter XXII (22): Group Training Session (Part I (1))**

Location: ?

Date: ?

Time: ?

"_And now it genuinely begins. Eduardo, his two adopted brothers, and Xeno Lucario will begin their training against the Void of the Dark One. The four of them together will work together to better themselves in their entirety, against this impending catastrophe._"

"Yes, but do You think they're actually up for it. Because, when You truly think about it, You're making quite the gamble here."

"_Define 'gamble'._"

"Let's see… You're willing to let our world rest on a brilliant young man who has no clear understanding of the origin of his powers, his two adopted brothers who only recently discovered they can wield aura to a great extent, and an Aura Pokémon that connects to an ancient prophecy, inscribed onto Spear Pillar in the Language of the Unown."

"_It's not just 'our' world that hangs in the balance. It's all of _existence_. Please remember that key fact._"

"Okay."

"_And it's not just those four individuals that reside on that parallel Earth that hold this great weight on their shoulders. It's also the twelve Pokémon within Xeno Lucario's party of Pokémon, My two emissary Pokémon Latias and Latios, Mew, Mewtwo, Master Hand, Crazy Hand, Dialga, Giratina, Palkia, and Myself._"

"Mm-hmm."

"_Even _you_ are involved in this inevitable crisis._"

"Yes, I know."

"_And please, don't think for a moment that I haven't handled this situation loosely. I've replayed the outcome of this scenario hundreds, if not _thousands_ of times within My mind, each with different possible branching outcomes that could spell total victory for us, or utter defeat at the hands of the Dark One. I've reviewed any potential action and subsequent chain reaction enough times to make Me loathe the topic, to make Me feel as though the weight of the matter is all My own, to make Me secretly wish this encumbering load was dropped onto the reluctant shoulders of another god. I _don't_, mind you, so don't get the wrong message with that statement. The actions I have decided to take are our best course of action for a successful, bloodless victory, without provoking the Void of the Dark One to come any sooner._"

"I understand."

"_Believe Me when I say that I care _deeply_ for the safekeeping of those that are putting their lives on the line. To Me, they're not disposable pawns in a game of chess. They matter. They matter deeply to Me. I trust them with My life. And the proof of this is the assignment that I gave Xeno Lucario's party of Pokémon, one that will make clear to Me their overall capability against this._"

"Alright."

"_Because, if anything, the fact that the Dark One appears to be patiently waiting for the right moment to act is both our greatest strength, as well as our greatest weakness._"

* * *

_30.1: "What Would Jesus Do?"_

_Future Masters/Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep & 358/2 Days OST/Yoko Shimomura_

_(Song Begins)_

As Xeno Lucario and I were beginning to recover our physical strength, as well as the injuries caused from our bombastic clash earlier, the two of us—alongside my brothers Costas and Ian—spent the vast majority of our time within my underground laboratory.

Using this time wisely, the four of us discussed what Xeno should plan to teach the three of us, from what he knows about his repertoire of aura-based techniques. Alongside this, I bring up the idea that we should travel across the Earth, placing ourselves on select locations that would maximize the learning of Xeno's teachings.

My brothers, unsurprisingly, agree to this idea of mine because, from their life experiences, almost all of their time has been spent standing on top of sand that has been overheated by the desert sun. They strongly feel the need to see all of Earth's wonders, much like Xeno and I have been able to do through our powers and our life experiences.

Xeno found it easy enough to select the locations that we would be imminently traveling to. All he had to do was list the aura-based techniques that he would be teaching us—starting from the simple and structurally _essential_, and then progressing to the more challenging and powerful—and select locations on this planet that he feels would best implement his training to us.

Once all of the mental planning for our future has been tended to, all that was left to do was ensure that we were appropriately stocked with clothing, sustenance, and the tools needed for our training days ahead of us. All of that was easy enough in my part, thanks to my S1-GS device.

Only a couple of days passed until both Xeno and I felt fully restored and ready to depart. And when we did depart, rather than use my S3-OSS devices to reach our location at _twice_ the speed of sound, both Xeno and I used our abilities to fly over there. Xeno used his control over aura to FLY, and I used my dragon body—with Costas and Ian secured on my back—to fly as well. Because, in doing so this way rather than with my technology, we'd _truly_ begin our training. Xeno would grow more adept at using FLY to travel farther and faster with growing experience, and I would further strengthen my dragon form by flying with passengers onboard.

And once we took to the skies, we flew away from Saudi Arabia, traveling southwest by west, to the first location of our montage of training, a location marked on the Earth as 50°W and resting directly on the equator.

The Mouth of the Amazon Rainforest.

The flight from Saudi Arabia to the Mouth of the Amazon in South America was by no means a simple glide over the sky. It was much more physically demanding than that.

In flying almost a mile over the surface of the planet, the four of us had to combat a surplus of wind chill that our flight forward caused us. During the times of day where the sun loomed overhead, the wind chill was bearable to both Xeno and I, as well as to both Costas and Ian, whom were wearing thick coats of my fabrication.

But when it turned night, the wind chill was only combatable by eliminating it altogether. Xeno resorted to using SAFEGUARD to keep his fur from freezing over, and I resorted to using my Red (Fire) Aura in low, lasting dosages.

Thankfully, the four of us had enough common sense to know when to stop flying and call it a night.

Upon reaching the westernmost coasts of northern Africa during the middle of the night, the four of us descended down onto this sable beach and made a temporary camp until morning came. And upon our earliest notice of the sun rising from the east, we ate some breakfast and resumed traveling in its direction.

We all knew that the flight over the Atlantic Ocean was going to be long and tedious. Which is why, for the sake of chronological efficiency, I decided to fly over there at Mach 3, with all three of them clutching tightly onto me for dear life.

Their mild terror and an adrenaline high was a fair enough trade-off to the time that I saved us from flying over the billions upon billions upon billions upon _billions _of gallons of ocean under the power that we were using earlier.

And upon our arrival to the Mouth of the Amazon at approximately noon, we had a small lunch and some time to relax and plan in order to prepare ourselves for the long trek ahead of us.

_(Song Ends)_

* * *

Location: 50°W, 0° Equator (Mouth of the Amazon)

Date: January 15th, 60 A.D.

Time: 2:17 PM

The four of us began our hike from the Mouth of the Amazon, where the Atlantic Ocean seeped into the Amazon Rainforest like the blood vessels and capillaries lining all over the human body, supplying the uncountable amount of flora and fauna residing within this overwhelming ecosystem with desalted water.

And much like red blood cells inside a human's cardiovascular system, we proceeded along the vast networks of rivers within the Amazon Rainforest, following the current, as it cut through the land we hiked on.

Because of the surplus of towering trees within the area, I had myself revert back to normal before entering the forest, so that my massive dragon body wouldn't be ramming inadvertently into each and every tree as I proceeded along in the general direction.

Alongside this, I had twenty-five of my S3-OSS devices hover overhead to scan the entirety of this forest—while the twenty-_sixth_ S3-OSS remained over my home village for security purposes—, and send my S2-PTSDOv.2 device the data they acquired, so that I now possessed an accurate map of our location, one that would prevent us from get lost as we progressed, and would help guide us forward.

As I held onto my Different System, my eyes wandered over the vast majority of the Amazon Rainforest, alongside those of my brothers and those of Xeno Lucario. We ogled the Amazon River that flowed to our left, as well as the hundreds upon hundreds of verdant trees to our right. We ogled the various forms of freshwater fish within the water and the exotic birds and reptiles within the greenery.

We could hear the wind blow by, disturbing the water and causing the trillions upon trillions of leaves of this enormous forest to rustle, the hundreds of birds within our range chirping amongst each other as they scoured for food, and the fish splashing the water as they swam alongside the current of the Amazon River.

And all throughout our hike, there was a very pleasant, herbal scent exuding from the trees as we breathed in and out.

"This is a lot like your home, huh Xeno?" I asked the Aura Pokémon, "Back at Celadon Forest, right?"

Xeno never looked away from his walking progress, or the magnificent scenery. "_It's _strikingly_ similar to my home of birth actually._"

I briefly glared at the digital map that was beginning to form on my Different System's two screens, the Amazon Rainforest's entirety becoming clearer as my S3-OSS devices continued scanning the area. "However, the size of your Celadon Forest home _pales_ in comparison to the size of the Amazon Rainforest."

"_Oh, exponentially,_" Xeno responded immediately, feeling no shame in his response.

"But the Amazon's animals can't hold a candle to the Pokémon of your home forest."

"_Unquestionably._"

After a few more minutes of incremental progress, the four of us came to a dead halt upon seeing the land that we trekked over stop before the flowing might of the Amazon River. Before our eyes was another piece of land of the Amazon Rainforest, placed hundreds of feet away, with this massive body of water separating these two pieces of land.

Without so much as explaining himself, Xeno decided to walk _into_ the water, with the three of us watching on as he did so. It only took a couple of seconds before he disappeared from view—save for his ears, which remained above the surface of the water.

Once under the water, he simply remained under the surface for about a minute, stagnant and simply holding his breath.

And once the need to breathe came to him, he resurfaced from the water and stood back on dry land before us, soaking wet from head to toe, and with a few dozen _piranhas_ clinging onto his flesh with their teeth.

Unfortunately for them, their teeth were only strong enough to _cling_ onto the Aura Pokémon, and could never hope to break through his skin and draw blood from him before breaking their own teeth in the effort, entirely because of his Steel-Type enhanced hide. All they did was wriggle a bit from the lack of habitable water around them, the creeping feeling of suffocation completely ignored by their primal nature.

It wasn't until he caused a brief THUNDER WAVE current to course through his body that forced all of the grappling piranha fish to fall off of him in a daze. And then, once their composure has been regained, they began to struggle their puny bodies off of the dirt, inching their way back into the water. Xeno saw this, and with misplaced mercy, kicked a couple into the water with his feet, until they disappeared into the water with a splash.

Once the last fish returned to its natural habitat, Xeno looked at the four of us.

"_I just wanted to make sure the water was to my preferences,_" Xeno began. "_Because now, I will teach you three the first aura-based technique that I have to offer you from my extensive repertoire: how to walk on water._"

Both Ian and I looked on at Xeno with eagerness in our dispositions. Costas however, and strangely enough, showed _reluctance_ at the thought of stepping on a broad field of water that was infested with fish that, unlike their attempt earlier on Xeno's pseudo-metallic hide, could strip _him_ down to the bone if he didn't get out of the water quickly enough.

He stepped back a bit from Ian and I and proceeded to walk back across the forest path we took in getting here, but Ian and I saw his attempted departure off of the corner of our eyes—or _eye_ in my case—, grabbed him by the shoulder each, and pulled him back between us.

"Alright, alright!" Costas got the message. "But I swear to God, if I lose a leg if I fall in there…"

"You don't have to worry about that," I explained. "Not as long as Xeno and I have a say in the matter."

"_He's right._" Xeno continued in my place. "_If you fall, I'll hoist you back up with my TELEKINESIS in a heartbeat. Those Carvanhas won't even have a chance to sink their teeth into you._"

"Uh…Xeno?" Ian was about to correct Xeno.

"_Yes, yes._" But Xeno already realized his spoken error. "_I realized it just after I said it._"

Only a few seconds passed for Xeno to ensure he had the full attention of his small class.

"_This technique was passed on to me by the late Tiny Riolu, one that it perfected in its spare time._" Xeno explained. "_The exact concept behind walking on water, for those of us who wield aura, is to manipulate the aura surrounding the base of our feet—or whatever parts of our body that we decide to have contact the water—, and causing it to spread out like a flat disc. This aura-based disc, once kept constant by your aura control, will allow you to overcome the frail surface tension of the water, regardless of your weight._"

With no mental effort whatsoever, the aura surrounding the bases of Xeno's feet spread out exactly as he described seconds ago, albeit remained _extremely_ faint, virtually invisible unless the light reflected off of it in a certain angle. The three of us had to tilt our heads, squint our eyes, or lean slightly forward in order to see this minute change of Xeno's aura.

"_Very little aura power is actually needed to have this technique work successfully._"

Xeno, without warning, caused the aura disc he now had below his feet spontaneously become visible and flow with power, enough to disturb the dirt and grass on the surface, causing them to fly off in all directions. We all stepped back a few feet and shielded our eyes, in an attempt to avoid squalid debris and blades of grass from entering our naked eyes.

"_However, if you find yourself using _this_ much power on this particular technique, then you're simply overexerting your aura stock unnecessarily._"

Xeno said before diminishing the power exerted on his demonstration back down to the bare minimum he displayed earlier. And then, stepping backwards, he stepped onto the surface of the Amazon River and remained standing _above_ the level of the water, as though he were simply standing on the dirt a few seconds ago. The piranha fish below didn't even bother to look up at the soles of Xeno's feet, sensing no disturbance or vibrations along the water whatsoever.

Now upright on water, Xeno eyed both Costas and Ian. "_This technique is an appropriate baby step for the two of you, to help introduce you in the art of wielding aura._"

Xeno then eyeballed _me_.

"_And as for you, I assume that this technique is merely a second method for you in performing this familiar action._"

I nodded before him, knowing that he was right in my capability to walk on water. After all, during our "sparring match" a few days ago, I utilized my Blue (Water) Aura to walk on water when I was evading and attacking him, amongst many other water-related abilities I had mastered and employed at my disposal.

Ian, upon pondering the steps to learn how to walk on water, already saw one key problem.

"There's just one damning problem that I've noticed." Ian identified.

"_And what would that be?_"

"Both Costas and I can't even see our own aura, much less _manipulate_ it. How exactly are we going to master a technique that requires us to perform an action that we have absolutely _zero_ experience in?"

Upon hearing this, all Xeno did was smile and face me, eyeing my S1-GS device within my holster.

"_Eduardo, can you withdraw my battle armor from that device of yours?_"

"Of course," I uttered briefly before initiating and completing his order.

Once Xeno's battle armor, in its entirety, was placed neatly before him in an organized pile, Xeno utilized his TELEKINESIS to place the battle armor on both Costas and Ian, dividing the individual pieces of his titanium-crystalline alloy shell as evenly as possible amongst them.

With his telekinetic abilities, he fitted the gauntlets and groin plate over Costas, and fitted the anklets and shoulder pads/chest plate over Ian. The helmet however proved too small for _either_ of them to wear, and I promptly returned it back into my S1-GS device for safekeeping.

With Costas and Ian now equipped with the Aura Pokémon's reliable battle armor—a beneficial "departing gift" from a notorious organized crime syndicate—, they took a few moments to get physically acquainted with the pieces of armor that Xeno loaned them. For Costas, the groin plate was a tight fit around his waistline because it was meant to fit Xeno's smaller build, and the gauntlets hung on a bit loosely around his wrists because Xeno's paws were minutely larger than Costas's hands. For Ian, the shoulder pads/chest plate fit on just comfortably, while the anklets were quite uncomfortable, and would likely bruise his ankles if he so much as ran with them on.

But aside from the physical discomfort that they both cringed slightly at, they could feel something bubbling within them, something dormant within them beginning to surface, to see the light for the first time, to know sunlight and shower itself in its radiance.

They could feel empowerment. They could feel their aura surge over their bodies like the wind blowing against their skin.

Xeno Lucario already began to sense their aura elevating incrementally without so much as using his Aura Vision ability.

"_Costas, Ian, how do you two feel?_"

Both brothers didn't need to do anything more than use their sense of touch to know that they felt invigorated.

"Is this…how you two feel when you use this power?" Ian asked with astonishment.

"When the need to arises, yes." I responded.

Costas simply smiled at the feeling of revitalization. "Well…I like it!"

Xeno smiled at hearing their enthusiasm over the topic of aura and stepped further back on the surface of the Amazon River. "_Good. Good. Now, remember my words and do as I've instructed. Imagine a disc by your feet and then step on the water upon your first visualization of the aura by your feet. And then, when you're on the water, just be one with your inner Surskit._"

"…" We all glared on at him and his misplaced Pokémon idioms.

"_Uh…_" Xeno droned in thinking of something more fitting to say to motivate us, but couldn't contemplate anything. "_Eduardo, a little help here?_"

"Sure." I shrugged my shoulders, and responded nearly instantly with a few words of motivation. "Just think to yourself: What would Jesus do?"

Costas and Ian found that phrase more appropriate and stepped forward from me with an elevated morale, willing to go first without so much as asking my opinion of the matter. I stepped behind them, uncaring in the least if they felt like going first, because I knew that they needed to master this technique—and hone their raw, untamed auras—with much more urgency than either Xeno or I.

They attempted to focus their individual auras by using their willpower to try to motivate this alien phenomenon of theirs, a characteristic about themselves that they've never manipulated before until now. They visualized a faint disc of aura to form around their feet, one that at their level of experience is possible to perform.

Seconds went by until they saw signs of hopeful progress. They saw the grass within an eight-inch radius of their feet begin to rustle in a way that made it stand considerably out from the way the wind was already doing so, almost as though the grass and their feet were magnetized and repelled against each other. They began to see flickering, random sparkles of their own aura within this disc that was already beginning to form.

I looked on at this with my one right eye and showed mild signs of incredulity. "(My God, they're actually pulling it off.)"

"(My Arceus, they're actually pulling it off.)" Xeno glared on as his aura-detection senses confirmed mild quantities of aura surging in their efforts.

With their state of mind now just about single-mindedly focused on keeping this minute quantity of aura in existence, they began to step forward. They did so slowly and hesitantly, as though they were surrounded by tightly-collected land mines all itching to obliterate them where they stand, when in reality they were merely cautious in their steps, as though a single gentle step proved forceful enough to _shatter_ their concentration, to shatter the faint aura discs they had conjured successfully.

Thankfully, this surplus of precariousness and insecurity was all for naught once they each took their first step onto the water.

Despite their minds, their inner instincts, their common sense, telling them that the laws of physics will force them down the water if they so much as attempt to try to _walk_ on it, the laws of aura not only overcame, but obliterated this principle. Upon placing one foot down on the water, their faintly emanating aura made the water appear as hard as rock, and just as stable. And with this reassuring first step, their second clumsy, yet _confirming_ step made their bodies stand _fully_ upright and on the surface of the water.

"Oh yeah," Costas said with a smile aimed at the surface of the water between his feet. "This is just like what Jesus would do."

"_Alright, now don't lose your concentration on keeping that field of aura active and continue to walk my way._" Xeno signaled.

Xeno continued to step back on the surface of the water, guiding both Costas and Ian to follow. The two of them stepped forward with slightly less caution and more confidence in their new technique, finding their third, fourth, fifth, and sequential steps to be just as secure as the initial two.

With the three of them now walking off towards the other side of the Amazon River, I decided to follow suit. The exact process for me to do so was as automatic to me as my heart beat. I did exactly as Xeno taught us to do, took a couple of steps on the water, and soon enough, I was following alongside them, keeping an eye on my brothers to ensure that they didn't have a lapse in their concentration.

Our overall progress was gradual with every step. We surpassed the halfway point of the Amazon River within a couple of minutes, and only progressed onward as we were already doing so, neither Xeno Lucario nor I letting our concentration on Costas and Ian wane.

As for the piranha fish below the water…

One of these vicious fish found itself practically _skimming_ the surface of the Amazon River, and then found itself ever so slightly pushed down when Costas's right foot made contact with the surface of the water. This little fish noticed the perpetrator and immediately took action, by clamping its teeth onto his Achilles tendon.

Unsurprisingly, the sudden jolt of having the piranha fish's tiny, razor-sharp teeth sink into the back of his right foot caused him to yelp out in pain. And then, with his concentration _firmly_ disrupted, he sank like a stone into the river.

"Oh shit!" Ian saw his brother sink, and fell into the water as well, when _his_ concentration lapsed as well.

Thankfully, both Xeno and I expected this to happen, and used our psychic powers to lift them out of the water. Xeno used TELEKINESIS on Costas, and I used the _Psycho Control_ technique from my Purple (Psychic) Aura on Ian.

"_Don't worry, you two._" Xeno said compassionately.

"We told you we wouldn't let you be piranha bait." I added.

With the other side of the Amazon River within our reach, Xeno and I simply proceeded over there, carrying our cargo telekinetically, and then dropping them off once we hit dry land.

Ian, sustaining no injury from his brief brush with deadly piranhas, simply touched down onto the grass and soil without any problem, aside from the fact that he was soaking wet, but that didn't bother him in the least. Costas however, having endured a slight puncture wound to his right calcaneal tendon, remained seated on the ground, attempting to pry off the little aquatic devil responsible, but with no luck.

Xeno Lucario saw Costas's discomfort and stepped towards him. "_Here, let me help._"

Costas stopped his vain efforts and accepted the Aura Pokémon's kindness, knowing well enough just how capable he was.

Xeno kneeled down at the little fish that clung on to Costas's right heel. And rather than pull it off, he gripped its tailfin and gave it a feeble THUNDER WAVE jolt, using only enough current to paralyze the fish and not discomfort Costas any further. With the fish now temporarily incapacitated, all Xeno did to remove it from Costas's flesh was press on the joints of the piranha's mandible to have them open and have its teeth no longer in Costas's heel.

As Xeno carried the fish away and back towards the Amazon River, I stepped in to treat Costas's mild injury, with the S4-BW device that I had in my possession.

By the Amazon River's edge, Xeno eyed the vicious little fish that he held onto by the scales of its tailfin. He could see it beginning to struggle, once its paralysis wore off. He could see its primal nature, by the way the fish glared on at him, trying to lunge towards him and bite him, struggling to break free of his grip in the process, despite slowly suffocating from a lack of water.

"(I wonder what _you_ taste like…)" He pondered curiously.

With one bite of his sharp teeth, the piranha fish was effortlessly cleaved in two, bone and all. It squirmed no longer, and hemorrhaged significantly from the remaining half of its body that was nothing more now than a cadaver.

"(Hmm… Tastes like Magikarp.)" He chewed and swallowed his small meal before throwing the remaining raw half into the water, where it was quickly stripped down to the bone by the other piranha fish in a feeding frenzy masked by sanguine water.

With the fish dealt with in his method of choice, he turned back to notice Costas's leg injury fully healed by my S4-BW device, and the two of us back on our feet. Then, after I stored my S4-BW device back within my S1-GS device, the three of us turned to face Xeno, noticing he had turned to face us.

"_I think that's enough water-walking for today._" Xeno said. "_We should proceed onward, so that I can continue teaching you three what I know._"

We were all in agreement with Xeno's choice of actions, especially after the success of putting this technique into effect successfully. And after Costas and Ian stripped off the pieces of Xeno's loaned battle armor and gave them to me to return back into my S1-GS device, we marched onward, deeper within the Amazon Rainforest.

* * *

_30.2: "Am I An Aura Guardian?"_

Location: Amazon Rainforest

Time: 4:30 PM

As the hike through this dense jungle continued, we found ourselves more and more concealed by the trees' foliage above. As more leaves found themselves clustered together over our heads, the sun's light found it harder and harder to seep through them all. It wasn't long until the luminosity of the Amazon Rainforest was cut down by half by our progression.

Thankfully, with a few hours left of daylight for today, light was the least of our concerns, especially my own. Because, as we continued to progress, I raised a topic within my mind, one that I acquired by letting my mind wander and digress as our bodies continued to move us forward. And after pondering this topic over, I felt it appropriate to seek out more information about it.

So without hesitation, I had this to say to the leading Aura Pokémon.

"Xeno, what exactly is an Aura Guardian?"

Xeno slowed down ever so slightly from his hike so that we continued adjacent to each other. Both of my brothers behind me listened on, knowing that any topic involving aura was vital to their developing understanding of the subject.

"_Come again?_" Xeno asked curiously, his eyes glancing off from his path every other second.

"The downloaded information that I acquired from your helmet," I continued. "It was just one of a surplus of data files that I skimmed over that I can access upon leisure, but I feel that it's more appropriate of me to personally ask you what exactly an Aura Guardian is."

Xeno understands how important this information might be for me and takes a moment to collect his thoughts before telling me all he knew of the subject highlighted.

"_Within the version of Earth that I hail from, Aura Guardians were far more prominent about one millennia ago. Aura Guardians are basically a small collection of humans that are capable of using aura and manipulating it for specific purposes, such as anticipating actions and wielding it offensively or defensively, in much the same way that some Riolu and Lucario specimens can basically do._"

"Anything else that you know about the subject?"

"_Well, from what I remember, there was this one Aura Guardian in particular, by the name of Sir Aaron, who became a hero after sacrificing himself to quell a war that was going to destroy Queen Rin's kingdom. He succeeded by transferring his entire aura stockpile into a Mew that resided symbiotically within the Tree of Beginning, giving it the power to stop the war without any more senseless fighting._"

Because Xeno mentioned specific names that I had no understanding or earlier memory of, I searched for the information relating to them through my Different System. And when I did so, the single most important piece of information of all of this that mattered most to me was one fact about Sir Aaron.

"It says here that he had a Lucario by his side as his apprentice."

"_Huh? Oh yeah, that's right._" Xeno rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. "_I can't believe I overlooked that detail._"

"And it says here that Sir Aaron, just before entering the Tree of Beginning to die a hero, imprisoned that Lucario within his staff, leaving it stuck inside of an ageless prison, with no chance of escape unless someone with enough aura power frees it."

"_…_" The thought of an ageless prison, where one can spend centuries in nothingness and still remain the same age as the day entered, sealed Xeno's telepathic voice.

Seeing Xeno's face turn pale underneath his fur made me choose to assure him.

"I'm certain that he didn't do it out of spite or cruelty, especially if he's cemented in your Earth's history as a hero." I hypothesized. "My guess is that he did it to protect that Lucario, to prevent his apprentice—and quite likely, his closest friend—from dying alongside him, so that it could live on as it wants to."

"_That's probably true._" Xeno said, accepting my idea. "_Though in the day and age that I come from, there are so few humans who would willingly choose to sacrifice themselves for a greater cause._"

"Is that ideology of human nature based on your initial viewpoint of Giovanni and his Team Rocket organization?"

"_…Yeah._" He said, knowing that to be true.

A few seconds passed before Xeno pondered my reasons for diving into this topic in the first place.

"_Why did you bring up this topic?_"

I thought he'd never ask. My answer was automatic.

"Am I an Aura Guardian?"

Both of my brothers and I saw the astonished look on Xeno's face upon the utterance of my inquiry.

And then we saw that astonishment turn into mild amusement when we noticed Xeno form a small smirk on his face and chuckle to himself.

"_You of all people should know the answer to that question._" Xeno chuckled slightly under his telepathy.

"The answer is 'No', isn't it?" I asked humbly.

"_Yes._"

"Why?"

"_By their standards, your skills with your aura are at such an _absurdly_ high level that they'll _exalt_ you rather than think of you as someone who stands alongside them at their feeble level. They'll see you, not as an Aura Guardian, but as an Aura _God_. And the reason why is simple. While the vast majority of Aura Guardians are capable of seeing the aura and manipulating it within their limited realms of power, you can do so much more with those same abilities. You can brandish the very elements with your aura. You can use it to fly, to wield psychic powers, to manipulate temperature in order to project heat or cold. You can even emanate it to the point where the earth _itself_ trembles, and you can even use it to undergo metamorphosis. And believe me when I say that there's still room for improvement within you, because we'll all have to reach such a level if we are to hope to stand a chance against the Void of the Dark One._"

All of Xeno's praise narrowly left me too stunned to speak.

"Well… My reason for asking you if I was an Aura Guardian was to see if the source of my power resides within there. Of course, after hearing you and understanding your truthful words, now I know for certain that it doesn't."

I stopped walking as though the weight of my curiosity was an encumbrance. When I did so, my brothers and Xeno looked on at my somber countenance, one heavy with questions that I continue to struggle seeking the answers to.

"The origin of my powers reside somewhere else, in something that I've apparently forgotten. If only I knew what that something was."

"_You and us all..._" Xeno said, sensing the curiosity from my brothers alongside his own.

* * *

_30.3: "It's Like Staring directly at the Sun"_

Time: 4:58 PM

Our progression within the Amazon Rainforest led us into one of many of its particularly dense areas, areas where light seeping through the foliage is so poor, and the nutritional quality of the dirt is substandard. The plants on the floor—Venus fly trap plants—have resorted to _carnivorous_ means to assimilate the nutrition that they need, by devouring unsuspecting small insects that are misled into getting a free meal.

Once the four of us found an empty patch of dirt that was surrounded by the trees above and the insect craving plants below, we all sat down cross-legged. Xeno Lucario sat directly in front of the three of us, facing the three of us in the same manner that a teacher faces the students.

"_The next technique that I want to pass down to the three of you is imperative in allowing you to sense aura in its entirety._" Xeno explained. "_An invaluable technique that my friends and I have dubbed 'Aura Vision'._"

As Xeno began to explain this skill, I took it upon myself to retrieve the segments of his battle armor that my brothers donned earlier, so that they could reapply it when the time came for them to practice using this technique.

"_In reality, it's actually a Pokémon technique called FORESIGHT, one that many Pokémon utilize to be able to strike ethereal Ghost-Type Pokémon with Fighting-Type and Normal-Type attacks, or to strike an evasive foe. But for my branch of Pokémon in particular, it's also a method of visualizing the side of the world where the true essence of every single piece of matter, inanimate or not, resides within and away from normal sight, under most circumstances._"

The three of us listened attentively, beginning to grasp a picture of just how important this technique is that Xeno is planning on teaching us.

"_Now, Aura Vision is a technique that isn't limited to the Pokémon species Riolu or Lucario. Otherwise, I wouldn't be able to teach it to you three._" Xeno explained. "_Aura Vision can be learned by anything, or anyone, that possesses either exceptional levels of aura or enough skill in manipulating it._"

Both Costas and Ian felt fortunate that Xeno was acknowledging their hidden power, and helping them learn to unleash it.

"_To master this technique, you focus the aura surrounding your head. Imagine a screen surrounding your eyes, as though you're giving yourself a visor, and your aura will amplify your sense of sight._"

The three of us calm our minds, close our eyes, and do as Xeno instructed. We begin to focus the aura around our heads, particularly that surrounding our eyes.

"_Your success in this technique will be marked by your eyes turning gold in color, the blood vessels surrounding them swelling with extra blood flow, and the ends of your hair standing on end and waving slightly._"

Within a minute of deep concentration, both Costas and Ian begin to demonstrate gradual and noticeable signs of progress as Xeno stated earlier. The blood vessels surrounding their eyes double in thickness from the heightened blood flow, and their hair began to stand on end, as though it had a built up of static electricity. And despite their shut eyes, they were now able to view the world as they never have before.

They opened their eyes—their irises now gleaming gold in place of their normal eye color—and made the fact known that they've gained mastery of this Aura Vision technique to Xeno.

"_Very impressive,_" Xeno said warmly. "_Now tell me what you two see._"

With their eyes now imbued with this unique ability, the aura that once remained invisible to them now became visible, for their viewing pleasure. The first thing that they noticed with Aura Vision was the clear fact that the aura surrounding both Xeno Lucario and I was, without question, the most brilliant and the most _dense_ out of anything else that resided within the Amazon Forest for _miles_. To their newly acquired Aura Vision ability, our auras were borderline _blinding_, illuminating the "darkness" that the aura of this forest possessed.

"Both of your auras," Costas began to describe. "It's like staring directly at the sun."

"_What about from a distance?_" Xeno recommended. "_What do you see farther out?_"

Both Costas and Ian focused their glares away from our positions. And much to their surprise, they found out that Aura Vision had a bizarre, biological _zoom_ effect, one that requires merely focusing of the object(s) that you're staring at.

"I can see…every individual leaf of every single tree, by the outline of their aura." Ian began to describe. "I can even see…all of the camouflaged insects and reptiles that have taken shelter on the trees."

"Yeah, me too..." Costas added. "They appear as little dots of dense aura, dots that glimmer much more brightly than the rest of their surroundings."

"_Good. Good._" Xeno said before looking at me. "_And what about y—?_"

Before the Aura Pokémon's eyes was my ongoing struggle to pull off this technique. I continued to concentrate on generating an aura-based "visor" around my eye, as Xeno explained we should do, but to no luck. My exposed right eye was tightly cringed at the effort involved in straining to master this new technique. The aura output that I was generating was noticeable to Xeno, even without his Aura Vision ability. And despite all of this, all that this was doing for me was giving me nothing more than a pressure headache.

"_Eduardo, perhaps you should stop and take a break before starting over._"

Upon hearing Xeno's words, I did so. And when I did, I exhaled and felt a mild headache built up within me, particularly over my patched left eye. "You're right. All that this is doing to me is giving me a headache."

Feeling as though the eye patch that I wore was amplifying my headache, I removed it and set it aside before rubbing the corners of my eye. However, upon opening my left eye, I noticed something abnormal.

My left eye, though normally _useless_ in terms of allowing me to see alongside my right eye, was _no longer_ dysfunctional. Instead, because of the earlier aura concentration that I was doing earlier, my left eye was now imbued with Aura Vision, allowing me to see the aura surrounding me.

And from Xeno's perspective, he noticed something else about my left eye, something that contradicted his earlier knowledge of it when he first saw it.

"_Eduardo, isn't your left eye's sclera _normally_ a blank slate?_"

With both eyes open, I saw the world as it already exists through my right eye, and saw the hidden aura surrounding it as well through my left eye. And when I closed my left eye and then switched it with my right eye, making sure that only _one_ was open at a time, I noticed that the scenery before me swapped from its normality to its hidden quintessence.

"Ever since that fight I had over a decade ago, yes." I responded, almost not listening to his question in the first place.

"_Well, it's no longer blank._" Xeno said. "_It's as golden as those of your brothers._"

Upon hearing what Xeno said, I quickly paused from observing the scenery through a new method and retrieved my S2-PTSDOv.2 device from its holster. And upon staring at my reflection from the surface of its reflective screens, Xeno's observation was now made fact by me. What I saw in place of the white sclera that made up my left eye was now a fully functional eye with an exotic golden iris, as well as a scar line running vertically down the middle, one that Xeno was responsible for leaving when he attacked me with METAL CLAW upon our first "introduction".

"Unbelievable…" I muttered in astonishment. "You've actually given my left eye a purpose to exist again."

"_You're welcome,_" Xeno said with a small smile, and then focused on the process that I did to regain the other half of my vision. "_It's astonishing how you are not only able to use Aura Vision _selectively_, but _permanently_ as well._"

What Xeno said was true when I realized it. "You're right. I'm not even using the slightest amount of aura to keep this ability in effect. And if I was—and I believe I am—, it's so mild that I don't even notice it."

"_Do you think you're able to turn that eye 'off'?_" Xeno suggested.

With considerable effort, I attempted to suppress my aura down to near nothingness, only to immediately realize that doing so did nothing to change the fact that my left eye was now _permanently_ altered, and for the better.

"No, I don't think I can." I said, putting my eye patch back over my left eye, and seeing the world as it normally and always appears to be. "The concentration I was doing to learn this technique must've permanently altered my left eye."

Once my eye patch was back over my left eye, I simply swapped its placement to cover my right eye, leaving my left eye to rest as I saw the aura surrounding me.

"Besides, it would be foolish in my part to negate a miracle such as this." I smiled.

"_My thoughts exactly,_" Xeno said, proud of the immediate results of his teaching.

* * *

_30.4: "And If We Are What Our Pasts Makes Us…"_

Location: Amazon Rainforest (Outskirts)

Time: 6:12 PM

As the sun began to set overhead, Xeno felt it appropriate to call today a successful first day of training and suggest the four of us get some rest for tomorrow. Once Xeno made that call, I guided the four of us to the outskirts of the Amazon Rainforest, until the coastline of the Amazon Rainforest met the Atlantic Ocean.

Unfortunately, when we reached the coastline, we stood in the center of a recovering section of the forest, one burned down to the ground by fire, likely from the result of a recent thunderstorm.

Regardless of this ash-stained tree graveyard, the four of us decided to set up camp for the evening here.

"I guess here is as good of a place as any to set up camp." Costas said, oblivious to this smoldered setting.

"I'll go gather some firewood for the fire." Ian offered. "Costas, do you want to help me?"

"Of course," he said with elevated enthusiasm.

As I saw my two brothers proceed back into the thicket of the Amazon Rainforest, I stopped them in their tracks with this mental note. "Why don't you just ask for me to retrieve some firewood from my S1-GS device? I have it in abundance as is."

"We know that." Costas replied, completely aware of the versatility of my Grand Storage Sphere. "But it would just kill the fun of using our newly-learned Aura Vision technique."

"Alright then," I complied, understanding their logic. "Just be wary of any potential predators. There's likely a surplus of them roaming this forest, especially at this time of day."

"That won't be a problem for us." Ian said smugly. "We'll see them coming a mile away now."

With that, both of my brothers activated their Aura Vision abilities and proceeded into the forest, disappearing from sight within the towering trees, off to find some firewood for our temporary campsite.

I watched on at this with a smirk on my face. "They're just like children that received a new toy to play with, huh Xeno?"

"_…_" I get no verbal response from the Aura Pokémon.

"Xeno?"

I turned to face the Aura Pokémon when I heard no response from him. Upon locating him with my left eye, I notice him simply standing idle, facing the charred piece of this monumental forest rather than the setting sun by the ocean.

I approached the Aura Pokémon and stood by his side, taking into account his melancholy facial expression once I eyed it. "Is something the matter, Xeno?"

"_…_" Xeno continued to stare off at the carcasses of these trees, dozing off into the memories of his mind in the process.

"Xeno Lucario?"

"_…Huh? Did you say something?_" He blinked a few times and shook his head before he turned to face me.

"Is something the matter with you?" I repeated my question again, once I now had his full attention. "You look depressed."

"_Oh…I suppose I do._" Xeno solemnly muttered before facing the lifeless trees once again. "_I don't blame myself after all. Just seeing these dozens of trees, burned to a blacker shade than the night sky, reminds me of darker days in my life._"

"What do you mean by that?" I asked curiously, with a similar tone of voice that he was emanating.

"_The day that my life eternally changed course,_" Xeno began. "_The day that I was taken from my forest home and made into a weapon of Team Rocket._"

_Green and Blue/Halo 4 Original Soundtrack/Neil Davidge_

_(Song Begins)_

Knowing virtually nothing of his past, I found myself naturally drawn to knowing more. "Can you go into more detail, please? I'm all ears right now, to hear your past."

Xeno couldn't deny my interest in him and accepted my request with a nod, feeling as though doing so would help shed some of the negativity that he was presently feeling.

"_It was morning when Team Rocket arrived into Celadon Forest, my birth home, via their mechanical aerial vehicles. They came in to capture as many of us as they physically could with the resources that they had. They captured as many of my neighbors as they saw fit, and killed off those that proved too difficult or too independent._"

Listening on to Xeno's past, I could paint a picture within my mind of what exactly these people did when they invaded Xeno's forest home, with the information of Team Rocket and the information of his race of supernatural Pokémon that I had analyzed from the data that I downloaded from the databanks within Xeno's helmet.

"_They burned down my friend Sceptile's home and cost it its right arm, all before driving it into an unstable state of being. My friend Tiny perished after it protected Sceptile from them. I couldn't do a damn thing to stop them on that day, and I was too weak back then to evade capture, alongside my friend Wanderer._"

"What did they do to you then?"

"_Instead of putting me in the hands of a Grunt, Giovanni appointed me directly _into_ Team Rocket, as a member rather than another disposable tool. They gave me a set of Pokémon to use as my own, one of them being Wanderer because I was given the choice to select it, and any other Pokémon eventually became Pokémon that I can't see myself living without. Team Rocket had me do various missions and tasks, many of which I'm not particularly proud of doing, and have had lingering nightmares over._"

Even though I knew that I can always refer to the downloaded data that I acquired from his battle armor's helmet to truly understand his past, I'd much rather know about Xeno's past from the source, and then fill in the blanks afterward.

"_Thankfully, with the Pokémon that I befriended, alongside those that Mewtwo helped gather for me, I formulated a plan of escape, under the name of Team Liberator. After a year of waiting for the right moment, our plan went into effect and was successful, and I managed to escape with my friends, alongside all of the Pokémon within Team Rocket Main headquarters._"

"And how has Team Rocket shaped the overall course of your life?"

Xeno paused for a considerable amount of time, never having been asked this question before, and never having the opportunity to recollect on his past to see how it has shaped his present.

"_You're actually the first person to ever ask me that question._" Xeno said, looking over at me with widened eyes.

"Well, that's probably because I'm the first person to truly care."

Xeno smiled briefly before returning to the topic at hand. "_Now that I think about it, after having endured slavery at the hands of a criminal organization for over a year, I can't picture how my life would've turned out if Team Rocket never arrived into my forest. If I was never captured, I never would've met many of the Pokémon that I can safely call my lifelong companions. I would've never been able to explore so many sights in my world so quickly. I would've never liberated hundreds of Pokémon from a life of captivity. And maybe, when I think about it, I would never have been guided into finding a greater purpose in my life, one that involves my being crossing over into a parallel Earth. Or perhaps, I would've been guided to it by some other means._"

"The prophecy that involves you and the Void of the Dark One?"

"_Yes, exactly._"

Having learned considerably more about the Aura Pokémon, I decided to return the favor.

"Would you like to know of _my_ past, where my life permanently changed course?"

Xeno, knowing the importance of understanding each other to the best of our ability, to further strengthen ourselves for the inevitable, couldn't say no, even though he's already heard a piece of my back story when he was held captive by Nero, and I rescued him.

"_Of course,_" he said simply.

"Well, the day that my life changed irreversibly was when a few Roman soldiers—just three out of an impending thousand—arrived to my home village, seeking the S1-GS device that I constructed for their plans of global conquest. My brothers and I refused to hand it over to them, and we fought bravely against those three soldiers. Unfortunately, I underestimated their acumen and the three of us were held captive and even tortured in an attempt to relinquish upon them my device."

Hearing this, just like I did before when he described his past, caused Xeno to do so as well. He imagined the euphoria of my brothers and I upon the completion of my first "S-Rank" device, the gallant struggle against those three Roman soldiers, and the brutal torture that my brothers and I must've endured after falling before their might.

"Then, after a few days, the remainder of their legion arrived, along with their leading general Mercury, the man that claims to have killed my parents. And despite our reluctance in telling them how to obtain my S1-GS device, they proved persistent enough to acquire it themselves. So with no further need for my brothers and me, Mercury had the three of us nailed by our palms and feet onto wooden stakes and placed outside of our home to witness _firsthand_ their onslaught on our home village, long enough before we would perish as well."

The solemn tone of voice that I implemented as I explained my past to Xeno weighed heavily in his heart, causing him to feel deep pity over my hardships, causing him to believe that the two of us fell from either the same tree or from similar trees, causing him to believe that our encounter was meant to me, fated and premeditated.

"I had given up hope at that point when they had what they wanted, and I was powerless to stop them. I was ready to embrace death, until Costas and Ian reminded me of my tenacity, of my drive, of my endurance. They motivated me to do something, and they succeeded in igniting my drive. And through my rekindled motivation, that was the _precise_ moment when my Elemental Aura abilities first awakened. That was the day where I took back my S1-GS device and made it my own again. That was the day that I used my newfound power to annihilate the enemy threat and protect my neighbors and my home from an untimely termination."

"_You clashed with 1,000 Roman soldiers with a power you never knew you possessed…_singlehandedly?" Xeno said with utter astonishment.

"Yes. Though in the end, after all of the blood and sweat that was shed in keeping my village in existence, I only killed _999_ of the original 1,000 in the legion. I spared their leader after a much-needed interrogation took place, once I knew for certain that he didn't kill my parents. I let him go home, and I haven't heard from Mercury—or Prattlecus as is his real name—ever since."

All of a sudden, the pieces of my past, the pieces that he had acquired relating to me before now, were beginning to fit into place, and he knew now what happened next.

"_And after you protected the people you love, they banished you for their initial fear of your great power._"

"Yes… That's true…" I sighed deeply. "They banished me shortly after, never giving me a choice on the matter. But thankfully, they gave me just enough time for me to anticipate their inevitable action towards me, and I used that time wisely to gather my supplies and bid a tearful farewell to Costas and Ian. And after that, I roamed the world for over a decade, pondering the origins of my powers and the cause of the death of my mother and father. I even clashed with a sable-scaled dragon during this time, one that eerily resembles my dragon form with a negative color scheme. That winged reptile left me a vague message about this 'It' that can't be prevented, endured, or escaped from. My price for hearing this message was the function of my left eye. It knocked me unconscious by striking my left eye with the tip of its tail, leaving me to ponder what this 'It' is once I awoke."

"_'It'?_" Xeno quoted, unsure what that could be.

"I know. I've been wondering what that beast meant by 'It'." I said. "However, thanks to you, and the information about your Earth's foreshadowing prophecy, I now have a concrete idea as to what this 'It' is exactly."

"…_The Void of the Dark One?_"

"Yes, exactly," I nodded at Xeno's response, and then returned to my original topic. "Despite my initial actions in protecting my home village, they decided to banish me right then and there. And as time went on throughout my banishment, my interest in my old home, along with my heart, hardened and solidified near-irreversibly. And then the hooded figure—or _'Odraude'_ as we are now calling him—came to me when I took into account Mars's _second_ invasion attempt at my old home, and I decided to do absolutely _nothing_ on the matter. He transported me to my old home, _originally_ against my will but no longer when I knew the Roman threat had to be abolished, when the people inhabiting it deserved to live, even after they removed me from the picture. And after I found myself unexpectedly _transformed_ into a white-scaled _dragon_, I decimated the Roman legion, _gutted_ Mars by blowing away his internal organs, and threw his miserable carcass into the Red Sea."

Xeno has seen enough gore in his life to be able to picture me doing such a thing to Mars with vivid detail, and simply smirked at the thought. "_That muscle-headed imbecile never learned his lesson when I defeated him the first time. And he decided to come back again to seek revenge on me, only for you to finish him off._"

"A small reason why I hate the Roman Empire," I digressed momentarily. "So after Mars's legion fell, I passed out from extreme fatigue, just before the feet of my brothers, who still showed love and respect for me instead of fear and despair. The next thing I knew, I found myself back in the infirmary section of my laboratory, my major wounds tended to by my brothers. They told me that the village residents helped them carry me over here. I met them and they apologized for their poor choice of actions to me a decade ago, and all I could do in response to their grief was forgive them, and forgive them emotionally. And after I had returned to this normal state of body, Costas, Ian, and even _Odraude_, explained to me what they knew about you, leading me to find you, with the original belief that you held the key to my questions. But instead of that, you actually held the map for our future, for our…Path of the Aura, one that the four of us will follow as lifelong friends."

After hearing my past and connecting it with his own—from the moment that he first arrived into this parallel Earth through the doing of Arceus's three Pokémon, the Deities of the Sinnoh Region—, the dots that have been scattered within his mind, pieces of my personal history alongside his, gradually began to connect. Events that he and I had roles in, the people that we've met, even before we _ourselves_ met face to face, all of it predetermined, all of it _destined_.

"I have a question for you, Xeno." I changed the subject. "If Team Rocket never arrived to alter the course of your life, then what course of life do you believe you would've taken?"

Xeno had to take a moment to ponder such a question. "_I…I probably would've spend my days in Celadon Forest, oblivious to much of the outside world, unaware of the evils of it. Or perhaps I would've been captured by some Pokémon Trainer and learned to do his or her bidding._"

The thought that I had Xeno's Poké Ball in my possession led me to say this. "I have your Poké Ball stored away in my possession. Does that make me a Pokémon Trainer?"

"_In some ways yes, and in some ways no,_" Xeno digressed alongside me for a moment. "_You are a Pokémon Trainer in the base sense, where you actually take time to strengthen your Pokémon. But you're also _not_ a Pokémon Trainer because unlike _most_ humans, you will fight _alongside_ me, instead of sitting back in the sidelines and spouting out verbal commands for me to respond to and follow. Hell, with _your_ current power, why would you even _need _Pokémon to fight for you? You could probably demolish most Pokémon with your bare hands if you ever encountered any._"

"Yeah, probably..." I said, content with Xeno's response. "Not that I would want to though, unless they posed a threat."

"_Now what about you?_" Xeno returned to the main topic. "_If you had never known about _your_ powers, then what course would your life have taken?_"

The answer to that question was so unanimous to me that I responded almost instantly. "If I had never known about my powers, I'd be _dead_. My cadaver, alongside those of Costas and Ian, would remain nailed on the wooded stake that I perished on. My home village would be nothing more than a pile of ash, charred bones, and stone, all of it mixed together with the individual grains of the sand, thus marking another chunk of land that Rome has conquered through their organized militia. My S1-GS device, now in the _wrong_ hands, would be the core of their plans for global conquest, or a tool for their _own_ downfall, depending on who wants to make its power their own and is willing to fight for custody of it."

"_…_" Xeno paused after hearing my words, astonished at the cemented ideas that I had already placed on this subject.

I decided to return to the topic involving our pasts, and how bizarrely intertwined they are, starting at the moment when Xeno first descended down onto this alternate version of Earth.

"Do you realize how unusual it is for our recent pasts to have guided us to inevitably meet?" I said. "It's practically fated."

Xeno nodded at my question.

"And if we are what our pasts makes us…" I continued. "Then what will our future yield for us?"

Xeno took a moment to think this question over, only to bow and shake his head in defeat. "_I really don't know._"

"Neither do I," I answered.

"_Perhaps we will know in time, once the Void of the Dark One is no more._"

"Yes." I said, and then formed a small smile on my face. "And once this crisis is averted, I'll dedicate my time in helping you find a way to return home. And if it's possible, perhaps even visit, all four of us. And in the process, we'd introduce my brothers and I alongside your fellow comrades. I'm _deeply_ interested in meeting them personally and getting to know them for myself when that day comes."

A smile formed on Xeno's face as well. "_Thank you. I would very much like that._"

_(Song Ends)_

In time, both of my brothers returned after their forage for firewood, each of them holding onto a couple dozen pieces of discarded tree branches. And once they did arrive, the four of us set up our temporary camp together. I prepared tonight's dinner, my brothers prepared the campfire, and Xeno Lucario prepared the sleeping equipment.

As we dined on a dinner consisting of nutritious Berries and cooked beef, the four of us passed the time by discussing our pasts, and going into great detail on our back stories, from the events that shaped our constitutions, to the people—as well as Pokémon in Xeno's case—that we've met. We discussed our own pasts, how it has shaped us today, and any possible outcomes if one single event within our pasts was changed.

Once the sun had disappeared from the sky, and the sky was completely sable and glittering with thousands of nighttime stars, the four of us decided to go to sleep. All four of us, thanks to Xeno's choice in sleeping equipment, made ourselves comfortable on our respective sleeping hammocks, taking only mere minutes in our parts until the four of us drifted off.

However, a couple of hours into my sleep, I found myself suddenly waking up when I felt Xeno get himself _into_ my hammock and make himself comfortable by my left side. And rather than say a word on the matter, he said nothing and fell asleep almost immediately once again, likely more comfortable _here_ than by himself.

For me, it took me a few minutes to drift off again, only because I pondered Xeno's Pokémon nature.

"(You're beginning to grow attached to me.)" I said, closing my eyes and drifting off for the night.

* * *

"Like a bridge he'll come between us, not a wall." —Orson Scott Card ("_Speaker for the Dead_") (289)

* * *

I can't help but feel that I'm taking a bit _too_ long between my updates. I'm feeling as though I should upload a bit sooner for a while, especially if you've paid attention to my recent writing progress.

...Yeah, I should definitely do that.


	6. Chapter XXIII (23)

Hit Count for "The Path of the Aura: Intertwining Crossroads": 6,131

Hit Count for "The Path of the Aura II: Brothers in Arms": 248

Total Hit Count: 6,379

...

...

...

...Ugh.

Do you ever have one of those days where, even though you have your plans, your regimen, your agenda, your _routine_ right in front of you and have committed yourself to initiating said routine, you're physically _unable_ to, because of an unforseen error or an obstacle that spontaneously jumps out at you, forcing your progress to be impeded or your rut to fill in?

In my case, I've had two.

My first of these two involves my laptop. Both the battery and the ac adapter crapped out on me last Sunday (or 10/6/13 to be exact for my future readers), abruptly retarding my writing hobby by sweeping it off of its legs.

The upside to this is that I had already finished the chapter that I was working on before then (what will eventually become "Chapter XXXI (31)" on this website in due time). The downside is that I still had to proofread _this_ particular chapter and have it uploaded a few days _prior_. This mild "delay" (if you want to call it that), even though its slight, is something that I take pride in _not_ having myself do. I try to keep a "due date" with the chapter(s) that I upload and stay true to them. Nevertheless, these things happen, and I'm just fortunate that I'm able to bring this chapter in through alternate means, by which I mean making the most of a limited time frame with the computers that I have access to during my college schedule.

My _second_ is one that is entirely relatable to just about everybody here who is reading and writing Pokemon FanFiction.

October 12th, the worldwide release of Pokemon X and Pokemon Y.

I'm sure I'm not the _only_ Pokemon centered FanFic author/die-hard fanboy or fangirl who has taken a break from writing to dedicate their free time in playing their acquired copies of those two extremely anticipated games. And in my case, because my laptop (and most of my writing progres) is presently on a short-term hiatus, I've spent almost all of my free time on my purchased copy of Pokemon X.

Where do I stand so far in X? For those interested, I'm 17 hours in and have played the game daily since its release. I beat the second Gym Leader using a party consisting of Amaura, Charmeleon, Fletchinder, Frogadier, Honedge, and Lucario (unsurprisingly because of my "Xeno" Lucario OC). They're approaching Lv.30 at this point, which means that anything from here on out will unlikely be a challenge for me.

Of course, compared to some other people, I'm pretty slow in terms of my overall progress. I already know of a few people and FanFic authors (here's to you, OseanSoldier) that have beaten the game already.

To that, I say "so what?"

I was never a gamer that rushed my progress in any video game, no matter how brief or how lengthy, how entertaining or how dreary. What I considered fast (in my opinion) was me beating the Elite Four and Champion in Pokemon Black 2 in exactly 3 weeks time (a statement that I'm sure my _earliest_ fellow readers will recall me typing down somewhere in "The Path of the Aura: Intertwining Crossroads"). I'm the type of gamer that will, in short, bleed the game _dry_ as I progress. I'm the type of person that talks to every character in the game, that inspects every bookshelf, that thinks things through and plans ahead when and where able, that balances my repertoire, just because I can. It works for me and I don't mind that.

Nevertheless, I wonder how long it'll take me to beat Pokemon X?

I beat Pokemon Black 2 in 3 weeks. I'll aim for 2 weeks with Pokemon X then. And at the rate that I'm going, it's possible.

...

...Okay, that's enough of that and now it's time for you-know-well-what.

All that I have to say in this chapter is that, when I wrote it a while back and improved via editing and proofreading, I inadvertently channelled a "You know what really grinds my gears?" moment from _Family Guy_.

All I can say about that is that I'm sure that there's people already doing such an act on Pokemon X and Pokemon Y, just because they can.

...Because they're trolls like that.

* * *

**Chapter XXIII (23): The Plate of Fauna**

Location: ?

Date: ?

Time: ?

_Tears Of The Light/Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep & 358/2 Days OST/Yoko Shimomura_

_(Song Begins)_

"That poor, poor Pokémon! How does it go on living when it can't feel emotions at a deep enough level?"

"_Which Pokémon are you referring to?_"

"I'm referring to that Aggron that Xeno Lucario has befriended. How does it walk about as an empty shell that lives without genuinely _feeling_?"

"_…It walks about just fine, because it is _more_ than capable of feeling emotions like you and I._"

"Is that so? Well then, why does it appear to be so emotionally _shallow_?"

"_It's not its fault for feeling so little. It was the environment that it grew up within that shaped Aggron's constitution into what the two of us interpret of it today. It was the first moments in its life—before Xeno Lucario took it into its party—that prevents Aggron from feeling anything more than what an _automaton_ can feel._"

"Why? What happened to it?"

"_I'm getting there. You already know that Aggron was born into the iron fist of Team Rocket, right?_"

"Of course."

"_And you, of all Pokémon, know the type of people that Team Rocket can become, right?_"

"…"

"_I'll take your silence as a yes._"

"…"

"_Team Rocket is a crime syndicate that_ _thrives on one concrete disposition out of their acquired Pokémon, the disposition of a remorseless, obedient powerhouse. Anything else outside of that runs the chance of earning a premature, heartless demise._"

"…How does this apply to Aggron?"

"_Well, according to Dialga's temporal research on Aggron, it has told Me of Aggron's early life within Team Rocket. It was born there as an infantile Aron, one that lived and breathed as a very gentle soul, peaceful and passionate over the positive beauty of life. It never fought offensively, only defensively, never throwing the first punch, and yet enduring those that came its way. Aggron's pure soul remained as so, with the poisons of a _cruel_ life never seeping past its iron hide._"

"Unfortunately, being a Pokémon born into Team Rocket…"

"_What this means is, to that particular organization of people, the nature that Aggron possessed and displayed to them back then went entirely _against _their initiatives. They saw its positive nature as a persistent weed, one that had to be swiftly stomped out before they could ingrain their black-thorned plants, their jagged ideology of malice and bloodlust into it, degrading the very minds of any Pokémon falling victim to this treatment until they were nothing more than concretely obedient fighting machines. They attempted to '_correct_' its behavior by putting it to battle against other Pokémon, _veteran_ Pokémon, Pokémon that could literally _steamroll_ over the Iron Armor Pokémon, and barely see it as an accomplishment._"

"So…what happened to Aggron back then?"

"_Unsurprisingly, Team Rocket went too far with that method of correction, and mercilessly gave it a very critical injury. They…actually _fractured_ its skull wide open, exposing and even minutely damaging its cerebrum, letting its life _literally_ hang by a thread._"

"Oh my You! How did Aggron survive to this day then?!"

"_They decided to 'surgically repair' their intentional damage by crudely _welding_ the fractured skull piece back onto its head._"

"…"

"_I know. It sounds terrible, and it genuinely is. Because, according to Dialga's indirect observations of this particular event, the Team Rocket Grunts responsible for the 'care' of those Pokémon said that it was much cheaper to use a blow torch and some ignition fuel rather than proper surgical equipment to tend to its serious injury._"

"…Those unbelievable bastards. I can't even _begin_ to comprehend how Lucario lived as one of them for over a year."

"_Yes. Anyway, as we already know, Aggron made a recovery from that ordeal, though it never recovered _entirely_ from it. Sure, the atrocious welding scar that was left on its iron head that day no longer exists because it has shed it away through its pair of evolutions. But unfortunately, the _mental_ damage lingers, permanently hindering its emotions down to rock bottom levels. In a way though, it might've saved Aggron's life in the long run, because with so little emotion to control, there was no genuine need to question its forced actions, leaving it to obey orders unhindered, with the poisons of such actions never seeping deep enough into it to change it for the worst. It merely obeyed like a pseudo-mindless servant, the side of a Pokémon that Team Rocket noxiously _adores_._"

_(Song Ends)_

"Humans… They can be so cruel to our kind. It seems as though evil is deeply rooted into their nature."

"_I can understand your position when you say that, but know that not all humans are as you just described. In actuality, the vast majority of humans are, at their core, good. If they weren't, then most Pokémon would despise the idea of Pokémon Trainers and abandon or attack their human partners before opening their hearts to them._"

"Is that so?"

"_Yes. And even though Xeno Lucario's Team Liberator concept was originally intended to keep humanity away from Pokémon, it's not an understatement to say that it's also a powerful attempt to prevent a repeat outcome of Pokémon cruelty from scarring them more than they already are._"

"You don't say?"

"_Yes. And once those Pokémon that Xeno Lucario had liberated were dispersed around the world, the vast majority of them have found euphoria in their lives, in one way or another. Some of those Pokémon—all of which I've observed during either my spare time or what I've heard of from Dialga, Giratina, or Palkia—have found this, even when they've been _captured_ once again. Only, instead of being captured by Team Rocket or any other evil crime syndicate scaterred throughout planet Earth, they've been taken into the loving, thoughtful, _selfless_ hands of humanity, and have done nothing short of thriving alongside their new human friends._"

"…"

"_Even Xeno Lucario _itself_ has unconsciously come to terms with this. Its bond grows stronger with its three new friends as I speak._"

"Well… Maybe I should meet these 'three new friends' and judge them personally."

"_You will, but not yet. The time is not yet right for that._"

"I understand. I can wait a bit longer."

"_Yes, you can. Especially because I understand your position in this matter._"

* * *

_31.1: Snake In the Grass_

Location: Route 210

Time: Noon

Hearing word of Pokémon that don't normally habit the mountainous roads of Sinnoh's Route 210, a small throng of Pokémon Trainers all took it upon themselves to search the area fastidiously, hoping to see any standalone Pokémon and take them in as their own.

They all searched high and low. Some Pokémon Trainers scanned the tall grass that encompasses most of the southern stretch of Route 210. Other Pokémon Trainers dived into the waters of the northern stretch of the rocky road. Some remained on the cliffs and traversed precariously over them, hoping that their bird's eye view would aid them.

All of them had no clue as to what _exactly_ they should be looking for, but they all knew that they would go after it when they confirmed it as something that doesn't normally appear within this vicinity.

And as for this "something" that they were searching for. Even though they didn't yet know it, what they were homing in on was a little Pokémon taking shelter in the tall grass, just nearby of the Café House, one of only two noticeable houses that reside within Route 210.

This Pokémon in particular was reptilian in its overall appearance, while being mostly green in color, but with a cream-colored underside. It has a yellow stripe running down the length of its back and tail, alongside yellow marking around its large red eyes, even extending into its eyelids. It also possesses yellow, curved structures that protrude from its shoulders and bend backwards, best resembling leaves in their consistency. It has fully-developed arms and legs, both of which appear somewhat stubby when compared to its overall slender body. Its arms only possess three tiny fingers on them, and its legs have no digits on them at all. Lastly, on its tail, it has a large palmate-shaped leaf with three prongs that stick outward and away from its body.

The Pokémon that the Pokémon Trainers in the tall grass were homing in on was none other than a timid little Snivy, a Pokémon that clearly stands out of the normal habitat of Route 210, or any other environment that it would find itself inhabiting.

_**(National Pokédex entry #495: Snivy, the Grass Snake Pokémon. It is a Grass-Type Pokémon that measures in at 2' 00'' and weighs in at approximately 17.9 lbs. It is very intelligent and calm. Being exposed to sunlight makes its movements swifter. It uses vines more adeptly than its hands. Kind of makes you wonder why it even **_**has **_**hands in the first place.)**_

Unsurprisingly, being pursued by people that are taller than it by their shins alone was more than enough to unnerve the small Grass Snake Pokémon. Snivy found itself breathing hard and shaking mildly when hiding within the tall grass, unable to calm down because it knew it was surrounded, and unable to calm down because its anxiety was causing the foliage to rustle somewhat abnormally against the wind.

"(Oh Arceus, what do they want with me?!)" It thought with eyes darting all around their sockets, staring seldom at the sunlight that seeped down above. "(I'm just a poor little Snivy! I don't want any trouble! I just want to be left alone!)"

Reasonably far away from Snivy, one of the Pokémon Trainers that was searching for rare Pokémon took a moment to notice the vast fields of tall grass that made up the southern portion of Route 210. That person strongly believed that whatever rare Pokémon that most of the Pokémon Trainers here were searching for, it was likely to take shelter in an area such as this. And if there was such a Pokémon doing so, it was either quite small or low to the ground.

"(Only one way to find out,)" The Pokémon Trainer pondered, before plucking one of his Poké Balls from his belt.

With a swift throw upward, the Poké Ball soared high into the sky, before opening and releasing the Pokémon it contained within, in the form of a ball of red energy. The energy descended onto the ground, and the Poké Ball returned to the Pokémon Trainer's hand and stored away within his belt. The red energy that was released dematerialized and took the form of a Scizor, primed for battle and ready to attack upon its owner's word.

"Scizor, use CUT on the tall grass." The Pokémon Trainer commanded.

Without question and only a single nod, the Pokémon Trainer's Scizor darted forward in a burst of speed, appearing as a red streak in the air to any onlookers. The Scizor, with its claws extended out and its wings fluttering stalwartly, allowed it to mow down the tall grass in a wide area, in about ten seconds flat.

Snivy, remaining as quiet as possible, felt its heart freeze when it heard scissor-like sounds alongside the sound of rustling, falling grass. And when it noticed that a lot more sunlight was entering its hiding area, it knew unquestionably that it had been discovered.

All Snivy did was look up to see the a Scizor staring down upon it, its shadow blocking out the sun, making it appear more menacing to Snivy's imagination.

"(Oh shit!)" Snivy said, feeling sick to its stomach, feeling its gastric acids surge upward and migrate into its mouth, puffing up its cheeks. "(I've been spotted!)"

Before the Scizor had a moment to assess Snivy's behavior, Snivy unleashed its GASTRO ACID technique on its unsuspecting target. Stomach acid flew out of Snivy's mouth like water from a hose, aimed particularly at Scizor's overall face and upper torso, instantly blinding and _disgusting_ the Pincer Pokémon, causing it to busily attempt to rub off the noxious fluids from its body.

"(Time to haul ass!)" Snivy panicked.

_Mad Dash!/Final Fantasy Tactics A2 - The Sealed Grimoire Original Soundtrack/Hitoshi Sakimoto_

_(Song Begins)_

As fast as its little body could allow it, Snivy scurried across the tall grass that resided further north along Route 210. It instantly disappeared within the tall grass, but knew now that its cover had been blown, and hiding within the tall grass a second time would only further compromise its position, especially if another Pokémon Trainer's Pokémon mows down the towering pasture in a similar fashion that the Scizor did earlier.

So instead, Snivy simply ran for it, as fast as its little body and its four littler limbs could carry it. It crossed over the tall grass and headed over towards the large trees further north.

The Pokémon Trainers within the area noticed the path of rustling grass that Snivy left behind in its wake. They gathered themselves together and followed behind Snivy in hot pursuit, now chasing after what they've been initially alerted of.

As for the Pokémon Trainer that used his Scizor to drive Snivy out of hiding, he simply returned a disgusted Scizor back into its Poké Ball and caught up to the back of the pack.

Snivy, as it was approaching the end of the tall grass thicket and towards a large volume of trees, could already begin to feel its body grow fatigued.

"(Oh Arceus! What were You thinking when You gave my species such short arms and legs!)" Snivy pondered with an elevated tone of apprehension.

Upon seeing the looming trees up front, Snivy quickly unraveled its vines from within its shoulders and used VINE WHIP to cling onto a branch overhead. And as Snivy reeled itself closer to the branch, causing its arms and legs to no longer touch the ground and having its body now swing under its momentum, Snivy used its vines and let go of the branch.

"(At least my vines are more useful to me, thank Arceus for that!)"

Now in midair, Snivy did a back flip to cause its outstretched vines to swing below its body and back up front, where they quickly grappled and coiled onto another branch from another tree, further increasing Snivy's speed and distance from the pursuing Pokémon Trainers behind its path.

And as the Pokémon Trainers behind it saw this Spiderman-like Pokémon swing across the trees, they found Snivy harder and harder to keep an optical lock on as the foliage from the trees grew thicker and thicker, until they inevitably lost sight of it and didn't know where it was heading.

Taking advantage of its growing distance from the Pokémon Trainers, Snivy swung all the more harder and faster, until the trees disappeared behind its wake and Snivy found itself gliding into the rocky roads ahead of Route 210, without a parachute to keep it from landing hard on the ground.

Thankfully, Snivy's mind was working overtime at this particular moment, and Snivy dexterously used its vines as helicopter blades, allowing it to hover down onto the ground while retaining most of its acquired speed.

The ground was forgiving in accepting Snivy's feet on its grassy surface, and Snivy continued running on all fours, retracting its vines back into its body, relying on its keen, dilated red eyes to find for it a new hiding area, before any of the Pokémon Trainers behind it could catch sight of it again. Thankfully, amongst the rough road and narrow rope bridges, there was one area in particular that would provide Snivy with all of the shelter that it so desperately needs.

Within the middle of the road resided a high cliff that one of the bridges sufficiently covered, one that was also surrounded by a couple of waterfalls and a large enough body of water.

With its heart beating hundreds of times every minute and its pupils fully opened from the adrenaline, Snivy wasted no time in running off to that area, knowing that the only way to reach it was to take a leap off of the bridge.

Still ahead of the Pokémon Trainer pack, Snivy ran up of the edge of the road with great agility, and then dashed madly over towards the precarious rope bridge, finding it easy to run alongside it even as it wobbled precariously in the wind, due to Snivy's very low and centered sense of balance.

Once Snivy neared the other side of the bridge, it jumped off of the edge, using VINE WHIP once more to slow its descent by spinning its vines like an overhead propeller, in order to land fifteen feet down. Its feet gently landed on the grass that was on the surface of that high cliff, and it retracted its vines back into its body. And just for extra security, Snivy immediately hid within some large, dense shrubbery that littered its new hiding spot, finding it much more shrouding than the tall grass from before.

After fifteen seconds of tension, the Pokémon Trainer pack made their way on the bridge that Snivy crossed earlier. And based on the dozens of feet that clattered against the wood of the bridge, every Pokémon Trainer within the vicinity was alerted of its presence.

All Snivy could do during this situation was coil itself tightly within the shrubbery and remain silent, finding it somewhat demanding to do so because it was still shaking somewhat and hyperventilating from both fear and its earlier escape.

_(Song Ends)_

All of the Pokémon Trainers on top of the bridge scanned their surroundings attentively, searching for that one elusive Pokémon that they all sought after. A few of the Pokémon Trainers even looked at the area _below_ the bridge. But luckily for the frightened Grass Snake Pokémon, they overlooked the shrubbery that concealed it and looked elsewhere entirely.

"Come on! Maybe that Snivy headed towards Celestic Town!"

"No, I don't think so. If it did, then we would've been able to see it run off."

"Arceus-dammit, we lost it! And I was looking forward to breeding it and trading away the offspring."

Snivy overheard that Pokémon Trainer's words and stopped shuddering temporarily at the idea, before shaking it off disgustedly and attempting to calm itself down.

"You know, you could always just resort to the Global Trade Station for that. They always have rare Pokémon like that up for grabs."

"Yeah, but many of them are inputted by trolling imbeciles who demand the impossible in return."

"Oh, I hear that!"

"I know, huh."

"What kind of person has a Reshiram or Zekrom in their possession anyway?"

"That's just ridiculous. No one would trade something like that away, even if by some miracle, some Pokémon Trainer actually had captured one of those two, or any other Legendary Pokémon out there."

"Exactly!"

"And don't even get me _started_ on the trading retards that seek in return a fully-evolved Pokémon, or even a Legendary in some cases, that has its level in the single digits."

"That's physically impossible. It can't be done through _normal_ means."

"Also, have you guys noticed that the people who do that almost _always_ have Shiny Pokémon listed into the GTS?"

"Ugh… Morons, neophytes, idiots, the entire lot of them."

"Makes you wonder how the people running the GTS don't do anything about that."

"I know! Is it too hard to ask for a _limit_ to what is and isn't possible to ask in demand for the Pokémon that you put into the system?"

"Maybe they're working on that 'fix' as we speak."

"If they are, then they're sure taking their Arceus-damn time."

"Hey guys! Look over there, by the Café House! Do you see that?"

"What is it?"

"I'm not entirely sure. It's gray and metallic looking in its appearance."

"It looks like…an Aggron!"

"…It _is_ an Aggron, and a big one at that!"

"We should go capture it!"

"Yeah!"

"Let's go!"

"At least it won't run away from us."

"Even if it did, we could keep up to it."

"True."

"We don't even have to _run_ to keep up with it. We can make like the GTS and take our time getting there."

"What are we waiting for then? Let's go, dammit!"

Still listening in, Snivy could hear their footsteps backtracking on the bridge and then onto solid ground before they could no longer be heard. Snivy didn't dare expose itself from its hiding spot, even after a few minutes of utter silence. But thankfully, it did allow itself to relax once the danger had passed.

And when it did, it noticed that it was resting on top of a smooth, stone-like tile, one that mimicked Snivy's green color and even felt pleasantly _revitalizing_ to the touch, especially after the tiring run that Snivy was forced to do.

Without hesitating on the idea of doing so, Snivy yawned once with its snake-like mouth wide agape, before coiling itself into a ball and drifting off to sleep.

* * *

_31.2: Gentle Giant_

Location: Route 210

Time: Afternoon

STEEP, ROCKY TERRAIN

WATERFALLS BY THE MOUNTAINS

TALL GRASS APLENTY

According to one of the inscriptions on the sixteen pillars that Wanderer Lucario deciphered, the location of the Meadow Plate is located within the area that the riddle best applies to. And within the Sinnoh Region, no other location aside from Route 210 properly fits the description.

Under Wanderer Lucario's orders, Aggron was now entering Route 210 through its southern route.

The Iron Armor Pokémon proceeded calmly through the thick grass that inhabited the vast majority of southern Route 210, as well as a large portion of recently cut-down grass that stood out from the norm.

Upon arriving towards the rocky terrain of Route 210, Aggron noticed a throng of Pokémon Trainers quickly proceeding over its way. All of them were ogling the Iron Armor Pokémon as though it were a wanted criminal, whose bounty would set them for life if they captured it.

Aggron simply stopped in its tracks when it noticed the Pokémon Trainers blocking its path across to the northern portion of Route 210. Aggron noticed their facial expressions, taking note of their focused, battle-ready glares. At the same time, some of the Pokémon Trainers took note of the apparent lack of presence of Aggron's eyes within their sockets, in their opinions a result of shadows shielding them from view.

To them, Aggron appeared frightening from a facial viewpoint, and definitely a worthwhile prize for any of them. In reality though, Aggron's ocular shrouding was merely a habit of its, and whatever ferocious nature these humans thought that Aggron possessed was entirely biased, based on common research findings of its own native species as a _whole_ rather than individually.

"(*Sigh*) (I detest these eager combatants…)" Aggron pondered, expecting some unavoidable pugilism in its near future.

Amongst the Pokémon Trainers that are blocking Aggron's progression forward, one of them stepped forward and threw his Poké Ball in the air.

"Scizor, I choose you!"

Within moments, his Poké Ball released Scizor once more into the open world. And unlike before with its earlier skirmish with the evasive Snivy, Scizor emerged as clean and as ready for battle as though it were just healed at a Pokémon Center.

"Attack that Aggron with your BULLET PUNCH!"

Like a bullet fired from a gun, the Pokémon Trainer's Scizor instantly closed the distance between itself and Aggron, never giving Aggron the chance to put up its guard due to its blistering speed. Scizor launched dozens of punches all across Aggron's body, each attack causing the Iron Armor Pokémon's body to give in slightly. The right and left hooks aimed at Aggron's face caused its head to shift slightly in the opposite direction. And yet, despite all of the punches thrown its way, Aggron remained standing, its eyes shrouded in the darkness of its metallic eye sockets, giving a vague impression of its current status.

"Alright Scizor, that's enough." The Pokémon Trainer ordered his Pokémon, causing it to stop in its tracks. And without wasting a moment's notice, the Pokémon Trainer threw a Heavy Ball at the Iron Armor Pokémon.

The Heavy Ball had no problems impacting such an imposing Pokémon. Once it struck Aggron's torso, it caused Aggron's body to possess a laser red outline, and the Heavy Ball opened. But unfortunately, the Heavy Ball closed and fell onto the grass, and the red outline that surrounded Aggron disappeared as quickly as it appeared.

All of the trainers stared on at Aggron in disbelief, originally believing Aggron to be a wild Pokémon, but knowing now that Aggron is already captured and its particular Poké Ball belonging to another Pokémon Trainer.

…Or _Pokémon_, as they will never know.

Aggron, as though it felt no spite from Scizor's earlier chain of punches, leisurely walks past the Scizor that attacked it, even patting the Pokémon's shoulder a few with its massive hand. The Scizor that attacked it simply looked up at the Pokémon, in mild bewilderment of its calm behavior and its unimaginable defensive levels.

"Impressive speed…" Aggron unhurriedly droned as it walked away from the Pincer Pokémon. "Although your punches are thrown…as though you were throwing…a temper tantrum at me... You need to learn…how to better that technique…through a disciplined stance…and with more critical aim."

Aggron calmly proceeded forward, appearing as harmlessly as possible, until it stood about ten feet from the throng of Pokémon Trainers that blocked its path. Once before them, Aggron simply swiveled its head to the left and to the right to ogle the humans in front of it. It could tell by their eyes that they viewed it as a very powerful, _defensive_ Pokémon, one that doesn't instigate fights but is more than capable of fighting in general, if a viable threat presents itself.

And even though the Pokémon Trainers before the Iron Armor Pokémon couldn't tell what exactly Aggron's present disposition was—because of the fact that its eyes hid within the shadows of its eye sockets—, they had a strong suspicion as to what it wanted.

And so, without running the risk of having a 750 lb Pokémon mow them down, they stepped away from their positions, unblocking the road that Aggron wanted to proceed across, no longer proving to be a threat to a Pokémon that has already been captured.

"Thank you." Aggron bowed its head once to these humans in respect, before taking slow, earth-rumbling steps forward across the road.

The Pokémon Trainers just watched on at the gentle giant as it proceeded past them, until it was well past them all. Then, cutting their losses, they dispersed back into their normal routine.

* * *

_31.3: David and Goliath_

Snivy continued to rest comfortably as a coiled green ball that was perched on top of a high cliff, free of any obvious danger and able to regain its spent energy.

However, the sound of a sudden, loud splash in the water caused Snivy's eyes to spontaneously open and its head to perk up slightly out of the shrubbery that it was napping within.

"(What in the world was that?)" Snivy pondered. "(It sounded like a boulder landed into the water.)"

Snivy spent the next ten seconds listening in for any continuation of that bizarre sound, only to hear nothing else but the mountain winds blowing by.

"(Eh…it probably was just a boulder…)" Snivy's eyes slowly closed again and then it curled up once more into a ball, dozing off back to sleep.

And as Snivy slept, it failed to notice the quieter, rhythmic sounds of something striking the cliff that it was resting on top of, sounds that indicated something _massive_ was _climbing_ the cliff.

Not until two footsteps, both of which packed enough mass on them to feel like a small magnitude earthquake, reverberated on the summit of this cliff did Snivy stir once more.

Once again, Snivy's head emerged from the shrubbery. Its eyes were half-open at this time, its mind not fully alert at the phenomenon on topic.

"(An earthquake?)" Snivy yawned once and looked around, slowly turning its head back 180 degrees. "(On a place like this, that's not so surprising to—)"

Upon seeing two clawed feet that were both broad enough to crush the little Grass Snake Pokémon as though it were an insect, Snivy's eyes went wide open once more, and its little heart skipped a beat. It almost didn't want to for fear of what it might see, but it tilted its head up to see what was standing before it.

Standing tall before Snivy was an Aggron, with glowing red eyes, sharp flesh-tearing teeth, dripping saliva, and devil-like horns, all as Snivy's fright-fueled imagination hyperbolized.

"(Oh…my…Arceus…)" Snivy's pupils fully dilated from fear.

Without warning for Snivy's part, the seemingly demonic Aggron bent down with sharp claws extended outward, like those of a predator, reaching out for the helpless Snivy.

Even though Snivy had somewhere to run off to in order to escape, Snivy was too frozen with fear to do anything aside from curling back into a ball within the shrubbery.

Aggron, its claws now within touching distance of the Grass Snake Pokémon, dug deep into the shrubbery that Snivy resided within, passed it, and penetrated into the earth that the foliage was rooted into. Then, effortlessly in the Iron Armor Pokémon's part, Aggron lifted up, revealing a curled-up Snivy resting on top of a small, stone-like platform.

As Aggron slowly hoisted both Snivy and this stone like platform up to its face level, all Snivy could do was close its eyes tightly and ponder its fate.

"(Oh Arceus, this is the end for me! I'll be torn limb from limb by this goliath of a Pokémon! It'll drink my blood and crush my flesh and bones within its massive jaws! Then, it'll probably pick off my remains from its massive teeth with one of my ribs!)"

Once both Snivy and the stone-like platform were within the height level of Aggron's face, Aggron plainly noticed Snivy's present disposition and decided to act properly on it.

With the gentlest, sincerest tone of voice that it possessed, Aggron said "Are you feeling alright?"

"I hope you choke on my pelvis, you bastard! I hope you—wait what?"

Snivy's fear disappeared when it heard Aggron's harmless and peaceful tone of voice. It uncurled itself from its posture in order to look at Aggron's face, only without its hyperbolic, fear-induced hallucination of what Aggron _originally_ appeared to be upon its first, abstract glance.

Before its eyes stood a gentle giant, its countenance as gentle as a breeze in the grassland, its blue eyes—made visible during this situation—as peaceful as a cloudless sky, all in contrary to its rocky and metallic exterior.

"Are you feeling alright…little Snivy?" Aggron muttered. "You were shaking…like a leaf earlier."

Just listening to Aggron's tone of voice had an instantaneous calming effect in Snivy, enough for it to ask the behemoth of a Pokémon a couple of questions.

"You're not going to kill me…are you?" Snivy asked fearlessly.

Aggron simply shook its head left and right with the rhythm of a metronome. "I wouldn't do that…even if…I had it in my heart…to do so."

Snivy lifted a scaly eyelid upon hearing this. "You don't? But I thought that the Aggron race were nothing but brutes."

"Most are…but I'm _not_," Aggron responded confidently.

This colossus of a Pokémon quickly captured Snivy's curiosity. "Why?" It asked, wishing to learn more about the Iron Armor Pokémon.

"When I was about your size…as an Aron…I sustained a childhood injury…that cracked open my skull…and partially damaged my brain." Aggron began.

"Is that why, every couple of seconds, you pause when you speak?" Snivy took quick notice.

Aggron nodded slowly in response to Snivy's inquiry.

Snivy then took notice of Aggron's iron hide, paying particular attention to the small, insignificant abrasions that were scattered about it, as well as the small, fresh dents that were just as dispersed as the scratches.

"You still fight though," Snivy believed. "Those marks on your armor make that clear to me."

Aggron momentarily ogled its own steely skin and noticed the mild superficial damage on it, knowing that it would all shed away and be replaced with a clean new layer seasonally.

"Yes…I still fight." Aggron said sincerely. "Nevertheless…I'm no instigator. Other Pokémon choose…to pick a fight with me…and all I do in response…is defend myself proficiently."

Snivy nodded after hearing that, admiring this unusual Pokémon more and more.

"Besides, why would I…choose to fight first…if it meant harming…all of this…wonderful nature?" Aggron continued.

"What do you mean by that?"

"Simply look around you," Aggron recommended. "Look around…at this marvel of nature."

_Mountain Haze (Yamaka)/Naruto Shippuden Original Soundtrack II/Toshiro Masuda_

_(Song Begins)_

Upon Aggron's request, Snivy looked around its setting, observing the waterfalls, the tall cliffs, the mountains in the background, and the grass and trees that coated the surfaces of the dirt. It listened on to how the wind whistled between the cliffs, within every rocky crevice, particularly that which they both stood on top of. And most notably, Snivy listened on at the distant, faint roar of the waterfalls within Route 210.

"Can you begin to imagine…how many _millions_ of years…it took for the water…to erode away at the rock…in order to make these…waterfalls and depressions…within the land?" Aggron explained calmly, poetically even. "This unhindered feat of nature…as Arceus determined it…when It created our universe…is seldom appreciated…by the norm."

Snivy took a brief moment to notice the few bridges that were scattered about the northern portion of Route 210, especially the bridge that was placed about fifteen feet above their own heads—or half that height in Aggron's case.

"Do you understand…what I'm describing to you…Snivy?"

"Yes, I do." Snivy responded back, not looking away from everything it had overlooked earlier, that it took for granted. "These bridges are placed here for people to cross through this area. They exist to connect a start point and an end point together, with little attention paid to the point in between."

Aggron nodded slowly at Snivy's comprehension. "Odds are that…most of the people here…focus more on their…personal dilemmas…and have no time…to appreciate nature's beauty…or its craft…in broader depth."

Upon hearing that, one question entered Snivy's mind. "Do _you_ have any personal dilemmas?"

"Only two," Aggron confirmed. "One is a personal friend of mine…off and away…on a new world…and the other is…the Meadow Plate…that you're actually sitting on."

_(Song Ends)_

Snivy, after hearing Aggron mention what it was sitting on top of, looked down to notice the bright green Meadow Plate.

"What you're sitting on…has the capability of amplifying the power…of Grass-Type Pokémon."

"This is the Meadow Plate?" Snivy inquired, curiously feeling the plate with its two stubby hands. "No wonder I feel refreshed after my nap earlier."

Upon understanding that the Meadow Plate was what Aggron was here looking for in the first place, Snivy hopped off of it and landed gently on the grass that lined this cliff. When it did so, Aggron tucked the plate to its side, holding onto it with its right arm.

It then looked down at the Snivy that stood no taller than its knee. "I know that you decided to rest here…to evade those Pokémon Trainers…and I should respect your personal space…by taking my leave now."

Aggron walked towards the edge of the cliff, staring down at the body of water below. It was about to jump off and then make its way back to Mt. Coronet, when suddenly…

"Aggron, wait!"

The Iron Armor Pokémon turned its head back to look at Snivy. "Yes?"

"May I accompany you?" Snivy said straightforwardly, its eyes looking up at Aggron with childlike idolization. "You're the single most important topic to have entered my boring life. I wish to learn more about you, your friend off in a new world, and your agenda."

"…" Aggron listened on attentively.

"I wish to be…your lifelong friend," Snivy concluded.

A few seconds of silence passed by in Aggron's part, enough time for its partially damaged mind to come up with a proper response to Snivy's plea for a new life.

Before Snivy's hope-filled eyes, Aggron maneuvered its large tail so that the end of it was placed just slightly in front of Snivy.

"Of course you can," Aggron said with a warm smile, one that its blue eyes made themselves briefly present for.

Holding in its excitement, Snivy climbed up Aggron's tail, up Aggron's back, and then sat down securely on the base of Aggron's forehead, holding onto its two large horns for security.

With a new friend accompanying Aggron, the Iron Armor Pokémon jumped off of the cliff and splashed into the water, sinking into it like a stone. And then, just as quickly as it did so, Aggron miraculously rose to the surface, SURFing on top of the wave that it created with its weight, the same wave spreading outward as Aggron intended it to.

"Where are we going now?" Snivy asked, feeling the wind blowing away the water on its body.

"Back to Spear Pillar," Aggron said, keeping its balance on the water, feeling the water on the soles of its feet slide by, "where my comrades…will regroup at."

* * *

Draco Plate — Absol / Joltik

Meadow Plate — Aggron / Snivy

* * *

"The things I want are simple. To do good wherever it's within my power, and where I can't do good, at least do no harm." —Orson Scott Card (221) ("_Shadow Puppets_")

* * *

(Before I'm told otherwise by watchful readers, I'm well aware that the titles don't _perfectly_ match up for the last two songs referenced.)

You know, looking back from the day that I first began writing to right now, with what is labeled "Chapter XXIII (23)" but is really my 31st chapter on this website, I've indubitably noticed an _evolution _in my writing style.

If anything, I'm also noticing that my "intros" are getting, more or less, longer. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not. I enjoy that and write them to such a length when I need to, to point something out.

And speaking of pointing something out, here's one thing I must point out. It's extremely important to not _just_ me, but to a couple of other users on this website (Cyndaquil123 and DarkFoxKit).

At this moment, I have a poll active on my profile page (on mine because they felt I have the most attention directed my way). In short, it says that I'm in alliance with Cyndaquil123 and DarkFoxKit in writing a FanFic. The poll is up because we agreed on the fact that we want YOU, the readers, to decide what _exactly_ we should write. By that, I mean the type of FanFic that we as a trio should conjure grammatically.

After some initial debate with my two allies in FanFiction, here are our four choices to vote on, in their exact wording.

1. A Pokemon FanFic.

2. A Kingdom Hearts/Pokemon crossover FanFic.

3. A My Little Pony/Pokemon crossover FanFic.

4. A crossover FanFic of ALL of the aforementioned.

The poll was put up a few weeks ago and has already collected some votes in. And while I will most certainly _not_ say which of these four choices is in the lead, all that I can say is the following.

Alongside Cyndaquil123 and DarkFoxKit, through the PM system, we are frequently discussing ideas for whatever of the four options we have agreed in working on. We definitely have some interesting story ideas and are actually pretty eager to get them out into the light as soon as possible (they certainly won't impact my ongoing progress, especially with the "safety net" I have up on my future progress). All we need is enough votes in to definitively conclude what to write about.

That particular poll will remain up for a while (unless I'm told otherwise) and I strongly urge you to take a very brief moment of your time in voting, even if you hate Kingdom Hearts, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, or Pokemon.

Of course, if you hate Pokemon, then why are you reading Pokemon FanFiction, let alone my story and _this particular sentence_.

...Kind of makes you think for a bit, doesn't it.


End file.
